(Kemble, England / Hollister, USA) – The British-American Zero Avia Inc., which specializes in electric aircraft engines, has published a number of reports about the company's further development in recent days. Accordingly, Power Cell Sweden AB will deliver fuel cell stacks with an output of 2024 kilowatts each from 100. A corresponding declaration of intent has now been signed. The final agreement could cover 5.000 units over five years, Zero Avia said. Terms would be negotiated by the third quarter. The fuel cell stacks will be used to produce a certified 600-kilowatt powertrain for a 19-seat fuel cell-powered airliner.
Raised another $30 million
Last week, Zero Avia also announced the completion of another round of financing, raising $30 million (€29 million). The new investors include the Sustainable Impact Capital fund from Barcleys, Neom from Saudi Arabia, the Berlin venture capitalist AENU and the International Airlines Group (IAG). This means that the available capital has increased since the last round in December - in which, as reported, venture capitalists, including United Airlines, Alaska Air Group and Shell Ventures, among others, took part - to 68 million dollars (66 million euros).
Zero Avia wants to use the fresh money to advance its program for the hydrogen-electric drive “ZA2000” with an output of two to five megawatts (around 3.000 to 7.000 hp). This is being developed for 40 to 90-seat turboprop aircraft and is expected to enable flight distances of 2026 nautical miles (almost 500 kilometers) from 1.000. Larger aircraft should be powered by liquid hydrogen and smaller ones by gaseous hydrogen.
Zero Avia signed a letter of intent with the regional airline Ravn Alaska - also last week - for exactly these engines. 
Ravn, part of Northern Pacific Airways, Inc., has ordered 30 such powertrains to convert its fleet of twin-engine De Havilland DNC-8 (“Dash-8”) turboprop aircraft. The company says it currently operates a number of Q100 and Q300 aircraft on routes serving rural communities in Alaska. According to the information, the new engines enabled emission-free flights between Alaska's largest city Anchorage, the company's headquarters, and the parish of St. Mary's, 440 miles northwest of it, which has almost 600 souls and cannot be reached by land, and from Ravn several times a week is flown to.
Expansion of airport infrastructure
Zero Avia will also use the funds to build infrastructure at airports. An agreement was recently concluded with the Edmonton International Airport (EIA) in Canada, among others. The decarbonization of flight operations should be researched and developed both in Edmonton itself and at the domestic airport Villeneuve Airport; this is also operated by EIA and is around an hour's drive from the main airport.
As part of the collaboration, Zero Avia and EIA will initially conduct a pilot program to build a demonstration aircraft using the Hydrogen Airport Refueling Ecosystem (HARE). 
is refueled. The next step is the establishment of the world's first commercial routes for hydrogen-powered aircraft. A photovoltaic system is scheduled to go into operation near Edmonton this year to generate hydrogen for solar power.
The refueling system is based on a project in Great Britain. There, Zero Avia has already developed a 100-meter-long hydrogen pipeline along its hangars at Cotswold Airport near Kemble in central England. Building on this, the company, together with Shell Oil Products US, now wants to develop a system for supplying aircraft with compressed hydrogen for the Californian site in Hollister. The Texas Shell subsidiary Equilon Enterprises LLC is also involved. Zero Avia recently put a second Dornier 228 test bench into operation at its test center there.
Already in June, Zero Avia published plans according to which the company would work together with the US aircraft manufacturer Otto Aviation, LLC is equipping Celera business aircraft with hydrogen propulsion. Shortly before, Zero Avia and the British MONTE Aircraft Leasing Ltd. their collaboration. Accordingly, MONTE wants to purchase up to a hundred “ZA600” powertrains, which will be installed in existing and new Cessna Caravan, DHC-6 Twin Otter, Dornier 228 and HAL-228 aircraft. The aircraft will be retrofitted for customers from 2024.
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Zero Avia and Canada's largest airport in terms of area in Edmonton are jointly developing an infrastructure for aircraft refueling with hydrogen and planning emission-free international flight routes. © Zero Avia
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Regional airline Ravn Alaska has ordered 30 ZA2000 powertrains. © Zero Avia
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Green hydrogen is produced for flight operations using the “HARE” tank system. © Zero Avia
