Zeroavia, a company working on decarbonisation of the entire aviation industry, has taken delivery of a Toyota Mirai fuel cell car at its Cranfield base, where it will form an important part of the company’s ground-breaking Hydrogen Airport Refuelling System (HARE).
HARE is the world’s first on-airport zero emission hydrogen production, storage and refueling system. Zeroavia is partnering with the European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC), as part of the UK government-funded HyFlyer project, which aims to decarbonise medium-range small passenger aircraft using hydrogen. EMEC has developed mobile hydrogen refuelling infrastructure to supply fuel to the aircraft, featuring a self-contained hydrogen production and refuelling capacity.
In addition to developing an integrated hydrogen ecosystem, Zeroavia plans to offer modular hydrogen-electric aviation solutions for a variety of markets, including commercial passenger transport, package delivery and agriculture, initially focusing on 10-20 seat aircraft with a 500-mile range. It is developing the world’s first commercial hydrogen-electric powertrain, enabling longer distance zero emission flights with more passengers and cargo.
Zeroavia has already secured experimental certificates for its two prototype aircraft, passing significant flight test milestones, and is on track for commercial operations at the end of 2023. In June 2020, it successfully carried out the UK and Europe’s first commercial-grade electric flight.
Zeroavia is developing hydrogen powertrains in the UK with support from HyFlyer project funding from UK’s Aerospace Technology Institute and Innovate UK and is also part of the UK Government’s Jet Zero Council.
Sergey Kiselev, head of Europe, Zero Avia commented: “We’re delighted to have a Toyota Mirai on our fleet. With our focus on making hydrogen powered flight a reality, it makes perfect sense to add a zero emission car to our ground fleet. We’ll be using it for transport around the Cranfield and other UK locations.”
With this latest Mirai delivery, supported by the OLEV hydrogen for transport scheme, the range of companies and organisations using the vehicle is expanding, from private hire operators, museums and universities, police forces and public bodies, to aircraft and hydrogen refuelling developers.