A California based company promising to deliver an end-to-end solution for hydrogen-powered flight has crashed out of contention after failing to secure the funds needed to carry on its lofty – and costly – mission.
Universal Hydrogen, founded in 2020 by a group of ex-Airbus executives, made news in March 2023 with the successful flight of a 40-passenger regional airliner using hydrogen fuel cell propulsion.
The test flight in eastern Washington of a modified Dash-8 aircraft lasted just 15 minutes, but was hailed by the company’s founder and then CEO Paul Eremenko as the dawn of a “new golden age of aviation.”
“We think it’s a pretty monumental accomplishment,” Eremenko said at the time. “It keeps us on track to have probably the first certified hydrogen airplane in passenger service.”
Fifteen months later, the company’s chair and current CEO Mark Cousin has told shareholders the board has made the decision to wind up Universal Hydrogen after efforts to raise further finance failed.
The company had raised close to $100 million in three separate fund-raising rounds since it was founded, according to reports. But Cousin said existing investors – reported to include Airbus General Electric, American Airlines, JetBlue and Toyota – were not interested this time around.
“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,” Cousin wrote in a letter to shareholders.
“We are deeply proud of the work the team has done to create the first commercially viable hydrogen aviation ecosystem,” the letter said. “It is our sincere hope that these efforts will live on as part of a future entity.”
Universal Hydrogen co-founder Jon Gordon confirmed the closure on LinkedIn.
“Despite everyone’s best efforts, UH2 proved unable to secure additional funding to move forward,” Gordon wrote.
“Perhaps we were just too early. Perhaps we couldn’t convince the world that hydrogen, and not just SAF [sustainable aviation fuels], are necessary for the future of aviation. Time will tell.”
The company’s failure is a fresh blow to the cause of hydrogen as a viable green fuel alternative for heavy transport and air travel – which is dependent on overcoming numerous technical and logistical barriers, not least of all the commercial-scale production of the huge quantities of renewable hydrogen that would be needed to supply global aviation.
Back in 2021, Australia’s head cheerleader for renewable hydrogen, billionaire Andrew Forrest, had flagged a potential global aviation hydrogen supply agreement with Universal Hydrogen, starting, he said, “with the famous Dash 8, and this time, with hydrogen powering fuel cell engines, not plain old kerosene.”
Ermenko, the former Airbus CTO who founded Universal Hydrogen and was its CEO until April, has reportedly attributed at least some of the cooling off of enthusiasm from equity funders to the looming US election.
“If [Donald] Trump were to win, investors saw a significant risk that the massive green hydrogen subsidy enacted as part of the Biden Inflation Reduction Act would disappear,” Eremenko wrote, according to the Seattle Times.
But others say the idea of fueling aircraft with hydrogen was never going to work – at least not without some major technical and cost breakthroughs.
“This should be the world’s least surprising news story,” said Bloomberg New Energy Finance founder and renowned hydrogen sceptic Michael Liebreich on LinkedIn.
“I mean, how can anyone seriously think that any non-homeopathic proportion of global aviation will be fuelled by liquid hydrogen delivered to airports in trucks?
“I am sad for the careers of all involved, but they all had access to the same information as I have, and all could have figured out the odds.
“If they are smart, those who want to remain focused on aviation will now jump tracks from hydrogen to SAF [sustainable aviation fuel] or BECCs [bioenergy with carbon capture and storage]. Those that really want to help address climate change on an accelerated timeframe should jump tracks from hydrogen to electrification.”
Sophie is editor of One Step Off The Grid and deputy editor of its sister site, Renew Economy. Sophie has been writing about clean energy for more than a decade.