Liquid hydrogen propulsion developer Universal Hydrogen has gone bust, citing a lack of funds. It burned through the US$100 million funding it received from investors in just over four years.
Since it started in 2020, Universal Hydrogen enjoyed some notable success. It gained Phase 1 certification from the FAA, and in March 2023, flew its Dash 8-300 testbed ‘Lightning McClean’ – the largest regional airliner powered by liquid hydrogen – for 15 minutes at the Mojave Air and Space Port. Universal Hydrogen’s fuel cell-electric, megawatt powertrain replaced one of the aircraft’s turbine engines. The other remained a conventional engine, fuelled by Jet-A.
The flight-test campaign was scheduled to finish in 2025, with the ATR 72 selected as the passenger aircraft, converted to run on hydrogen and with a planned entry into service by 2026.
With 13 test flights under its wing, the start-up had announced its successful operation of a megawatt-class fuel cell powertrain in February 2024. The liquid hydrogen module, which powered the ground test rig nicknamed ‘Ironbird’, ran for one hour and 40 minutes and replicated the flight profile of a regional aircraft.
The flying testbed ‘Lightning McClean’. Photo: Universal Hydrogen
As first reported by The Seattle Times, Mark Cousin, Universal Hydrogen’s President and CTO, broke the news of the company’s shutdown in an internal memo: “We were unable to secure sufficient equity or debt financing to continue operations and similarly were unable to secure an actionable offer for a sale of the business or similar strategic exit transaction.”
The documents shared with The Seattle Times also showed that Universal Hydrogen tried, as a last-ditch effort, to merge with regional airline Silver Airways, which operates ATR 72s in its fleet.
In a post on social media, one of Universal Hydrogen’s co-founders, Jon Gordon, commented on the start-up’s collapse: “Perhaps we were just too early. Perhaps we couldn’t convince the world that hydrogen, and not just SAF, are necessary for the future of aviation. Time will tell.”
Liquid Hydrogen Fuel Cell Development Continues
Even with Universal Hydrogen’s collapse, the path to developing a liquid hydrogen-powered fuel cell will continue with rival developer ZeroAvia and OEM Airbus, who Gordon congratulated in his post.
In November 2023, ZeroAvia announced a successful round of Series C funding, amounting to $116 million, and is currently working towards certifying its 600kW hydrogen-electric ZA600 powertrain, which will be fitted onto a Cessna Grand Caravan. Service entry is planned for 2026.
In the final analysis, Universal Hydrogen may have failed to gain the financial backing it required because it was aiming too big. Whilst Universal Hydrogen used a Dash 8-300 40-seat aircraft as its flying testbed and looked towards the ATR 72 as its launch airframe, ZeroAvia is starting out smaller – concentrating on developing a gaseous hydrogen-electric fuel cell to retrofit onto a sub-19-seater regional aircraft. Whilst it is also developing a ZA2000 fuel cell powered by liquid hydrogen for a 40-80 seat turboprop, the timeline for entry is a little later at 2027-8.
On 2 July, it was announced that American Airlines signed an MoU with ZeroAvia for 100 hydrogen-electric engines in the wake of its successful funding.
A significant barrier to Universal Hydrogen’s project was also gaining a reliable, large enough supply of ‘green’ hydrogen. Green hydrogen requires vast amounts of electricity to produce sustainably, versus ‘natural’ hydrogen, which is made from natural gas.
Hydrogen is also incredibly difficult to store – both in transportation and in the tight space of an aircraft. It can be either stored as a liquid or a gas, and whilst gaseous hydrogen can be stored in pressurised tanks, liquid hydrogen requires cryogenic tanks. Universal Hydrogen was in the process of converting an ATR 72, which would have seen the aircraft retrofitted with its liquid hydrogen modules and fuel cell-electric propulsion system.
In a letter to staff, Cousin said: “We are deeply proud of the work the team has done to create the first commercially viable hydrogen aviation ecosystem. It is our sincere hope that these efforts will live on as part of a future entity.”
