Cryogenic Hydrogen Health and Safety Global Research Landscape

The Aerospace Technology Institute’s (ATI) FlyZero project concluded that liquid hydrogen (LH2) is the most viable zero-carbon emission fuel for future larger commercial aircraft. The FlyZero reports highlighted technologies which would be required to enable such aircraft to become a reality and the gaps in liquid hydrogen capability. The technological change to a liquid hydrogen architecture is revolutionary and the cryogenic hydrogen storage and fuel system faces great disruption. To get to a certifiable, commercially viable system design it requires a breadth of knowledge relating to cryogenic hydrogen that does not currently exist within the sector. As such, the Hydrogen Capability Network (HCN) has identified three key areas which need to be supported:• Fundamental research into material behaviour in cryogenic hydrogen environments.• Fundamental research into cryogenic hydrogen thermofluids behaviour.• Fundamental research into cryogenic hydrogen health and safety.Workshops on these three topics were held, to identify subtopics that were of particular interest to both industry and academia. The HCN commissioned global landscaping projects to investigate the current state-of-the-art fundamental research on these subtopics in each of the three key areas, and a report has been written by academic experts on each of them. Each report highlights the global research status and gaps in which research and development is needed to enable the liquid hydrogen aircraft of the future.This report addresses the health and safety topic. The scope is to document global liquid hydrogen low (1-3) Technology Readiness Level (TRL) health and safety research to identify: global capabilities and work underway, critical research gaps and potential partners for future collaboration.Publications in low TRL research into liquid hydrogen have been analysed from 1957 to February 2025. The main focus of this report was publications from the last 15 years, to enable current/ active research to be audited and key research groups and facilities identified.