Embraer has announced plans to further explore two concepts for its Energia project, the Energia Hybrid Electric and Energia H2 Fuel Cell aircraft. 19- and 30-seat variants being considered for both models, which debuted last year as nine- and 19-seaters respectively. The Energia Hybrid Electric E19-HE and E30-HE aircraft will have a target range of 500 NM and feature a parallel hybrid-electric propulsion system while Embraer is aiming for a range of over 200 NM for the hydrogen-powered Energia H2 Fuel Cell E19-H2FC and E30-H2FC models.
“As new propulsion technologies will be first applied on smaller aircraft, Embraer is in a unique position,” said Luis Carlos Affonso, Embraer senior vice president of engineering, technology and corporate strategy. “The 19 and 30 seaters are sensible starting points for focused studies since they are likely to present earlier technical and economical readiness.”
Embraer stated that it is expecting the technology to be ready for the E19-HE and E30-HE in the early 2030s with the E19-H2FC and E30-H2FC tech following in 2035. The company emphasized that the concepts are still at the evaluation phase while it assesses their technical and commercial viability. As previously reported by AVweb, Embraer launched Energia in November 2021 to look into “a range of sustainable concepts to carry up to 50 passengers.”
If it can be done, I guess they can do it. But a range of over 200 miles? I’m not sure I see the point.
For a regional airplane on a feeder route, that would cover a lot of the busy eastern corridor. New York to Washington DC for example.
I thought Hydrogen fuel cells were limited by physics; low surface area of the membrane as well as low oxygen content in the air (especially at altitude).