Low-carbon transition in smart city with sustainable airport energy ecosystems and hydrogen-based renewable-grid-storage-flexibility

Hybrid renewable integration, electrification, hydrogenation, spatiotemporal energy sharing and migration, and optimisations are necessary roadmaps for the transition towards low-carbon airport transportation systems. In this study, a comprehensive review on sustainable airport energy ecosystems with hydrogen-based renewable-grid-storage-flexibility, has been conducted, from perspectives of airport energy ecosystem constitutions, renewable supported power supply chain, novel spatiotemporal energy migration paradigms, single and multi-objective optimisations, together with multi-criteria decision-making approaches. Hydrogenation in jet aircraft systems has various advantages, such as lightweight with low fuel transportation load, high specific energy, zero CO2 emissions, and low NOx emissions, reduced air pollution, and environmental sustainability. Depending on different energy sources, liquid hydrogen (LH2) can be produced by solar energy, wind energy, coastal ocean energy, and bioenergy, through chemical technologies and water electrolysis from renewable power. Synergistic operation between land and air transportation systems can promote net-zero emissions. Novel energy interaction frameworks have been formulated, for inter-city/inter-country energy sharing and trading, spatiotemporal compensation on uneven distributed renewable energy resources, and high penetration of renewables. Results showed that power characteristics in airport energy systems include lightweight, high-energy density, energy-intensive, fast power response, safety, stochastic, nonlinear, and dynamics. Coastal energy resources are full of huge potentials to support airport energy systems, through off-shore wind turbines, floating PV panels, current turbines, wave energy converters, tidal stream generators, and ocean thermo-electric generators. Research results can provide conceptional frameworks, prospects, and technical challenges, on electrification and hydrogenation in both land and air transportation sectors, paving path for transition towards sustainability and carbon neutrality.