Airbus Protect secures and optimises hydrogen projects

Specialised in the field of risk management, Airbus Protect offers a range of services aimed at maintaining the continuity of service of its clients’ systems and installations with a view to business sustainability.

Airbus Protect’s business is the control of technical risks. The raison d’être of the Airbus subsidiary is to secure the systems and associated infrastructures of its customers to ensure their durability and avoid breakdowns, accidents and malicious attacks. The expertise of Airbus Protect, with 35 years of experience in the aeronautics, space and energy sectors, is recognised by its customers as a guarantee of security excellence. “We carry out studies and put together dossiers to demonstrate that all systems and infrastructures meet the performance objectives set, whether in terms of regulatory compliance, security levels or availability, explains Pierre Sécher, Key Account Manager. We have historically provided services in the field of reliability and industrial risk, but also in the field of cybersecurity for systems that are increasingly connected and therefore more vulnerable. The added value of Airbus Protect is to combine reliability, safety and industrial security with digital tools to offer a global and modern approach to risk management.”

A long experience of hydrogen-related risks

Beyond its historical activity in aeronautics, Airbus Protect has been involved for many years in sectors such as rail transport, chemistry, defence, energy, etc. Airbus Protect teams are able to secure projects from the design and implementation of industrial units to operations. This involves regulatory support for operating permits for risky sites, safety demonstrations for the operation of transport systems and also risk mapping of territorial ecosystems. “We have been working for more than 30 years with industrial companies such as Air Liquide and Airbus, and have the ability to understand their issues, constraints and risks. We work for all the links in the hydrogen value chain, from producers to users, whether they operate in the industrial sector (refining, chemicals, metallurgy, etc.) or in the mobility sector. This is also the case with ArianeGroup, which has the particularity of using liquefied hydrogen for its space launchers.

Airbus announces H2 partnership with Air Liquide and Vinci Airports

The three players have joined forces to implement a hydrogen station at Lyon-Saint-Exupéry airport from 2023. Initially dedicated to land transport, this infrastructure will gradually open up to air transport through the deployment of infrastructures for liquefied hydrogen until 2030, and then ensure massive production and distribution beyond this date. This pilot initiative shows that Airbus is interested in the entire hydrogen value and supply chain right down to the aircraft’s tail.

Meeting the challenge of the future airbus zero emission aircraft

Airbus’ objective of developing its three hydrogen-powered concept planes and designing a zero-emission aircraft by 2035 is mobilising many of the resources of Airbus Protect, recognised as the group’s centre of excellence for safety, security and sustainability. “The technical challenges imposed by the use of liquefied hydrogen mean that we have to rethink the entire design and redevelop the safety demonstrations that will enable the authorities to issue future airworthiness certificates,” concludes Pierre Sécher.

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