What started with a simple question of ‘What are we going to do next?’ set Caymanian scientist John-Paul Clarke on a course that ended with the creation of game-changing green aviation fuel technology.
The Beach Bay resident is today revelling in the successful use of his powertrain invention that led to US-based company Universal Hydrogen’s first regional flight using hydrogen fuel cell propulsion in early March.
“It’s really cool, that’s the only one way to say it,” Clarke, who is a co-founder of Universal Hydrogen, said, as he described the test flight and his work in a recent Cayman Compass interview.
Dinner conversation paved way for tech
Clarke, a professor at the University of Texas, and former professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said the creation of the powertrain – a system that converts the energy in hydrogen (the fuel) into forward movement – all started during a dinner conversation a little less than three years ago with three colleagues, one of whom is a former student.
“We were at dinner in New York, and we were all sitting around [saying], ‘Hey, what we’re gonna do next?… We should do something cool’, and basically the idea came up. We … started doing some calculations and said, ‘Hey, we could make this work,'” he recalled.
They founded Universal Hydrogen Co. and, with the promise of equity, Clarke said, the team added their first two employees.
During COVID they worked on most of the paper design for the fuel cell technology powertrain and their novel fuel storage and distribution system, and then in March 2021 they raised funds to make it a reality.
He said the team first built a 30-kilowatt test bed, and then a one-megawatt test bed, which was the basis for the powertrain.
“In less than three years from a dinner conversation, we went from thinking about the ideas to first flight, which is incredibly fast. I stepped back from my initial role [as chief technical officer] after about 18 months, which was a good thing for me and for the company,” he said.
Clarke added that he does his best work in the formative stages “where things are chaotic, when you are trying to figure out stuff and get things on the road. But I like academia and the pace of academia. The day-to-day of product development engineering is not my best thing.”
Game-changing flight
Clarke said that “being able to witness what he created take form in real life was thrilling”.
The Universal Hydrogen Company airplane, nicknamed Lightning McClean, took off from Grant County International Airport, in Washington state, and flew for 15 minutes, reaching an altitude of 3,500 MSL (mean sea level, which is considered the true altitude).
“It was the first in a two-year flight-test campaign expected to culminate in 2025 with entry into passenger service of ATR 72 regional aircraft converted to run on hydrogen,” a statement from the company said.
Clarke believes the use of the tech could be a game changer in efforts to lower aviation pollution.
“The key thing why the hydrogen fuel cell electric airplane works is because the maintenance cost is actually lower than a regular airplane. A hydrogen fuel cell has very few moving parts. It’s a chemical reaction… you get the oxygen from the air, you get the hydrogen from our novel storage system on board the aircraft… the fuel cell has an anode and cathode [electrodes]… the hydrogen and oxygen react and you get electricity and water,” Clarke explained.
He said his ultimate dream coming out of the development programme is “to get one of the two major manufacturers to build a hydrogen airplane for single aisle [aircraft]… the replacement for [one or both] of the 737 and A320 families of aircraft”.
Clarke, who is also deputy chairman of the Cayman Airways board, said though the local flag carrier is not looking to get hydrogen fuel cell tech, there is scope for sustainable solutions within the Caribbean.
“I could definitely see a solution here in the Caribbean. There have been conversations around that, not necessarily in Cayman. Around the Caribbean there are countries with significant renewable electricity production capacity that could potentially be producing the hydrogen, and we have lots of islands near to each other, right? So, I mean, who knows?” he said.
However, he added, the hydrogen has to be produced at the right price.
US carrier Connect Airlines, which will begin regional turboprop service this spring, has placed a first-position US order with Universal Hydrogen to convert 75 ATR 72-600 regional airplanes to hydrogen powertrains with purchase rights for 25 additional aircraft conversions.
Deliveries will start in 2025, the company statement said.
STEM careers can be cool
Clarke credited his love for STEM and invention for giving him the chance to do “cool” things.
“In life you get maybe one time to do something cool. I’ve had two big ones,” he said, noting that a procedure he designed in 2007, together with Walter White at Southern California TRACON, for aircraft landing from the east at Los Angeles International Airport, has “saved billions of gallons of fuels and CO2”.
He urged young Caymanians to consider STEM career paths.
“Do not be so consumed about whether your career is going to allow you to stay here or not. Be consumed with whether you’re going to do something cool and whether you’re gonna like it. You’ll find a way to be here and be there at the same time. I have, I commute back and forth,” he said.
Clarke said STEM careers are not just limited to lab work and computations; it also includes programming, game design, artificial intelligence and computer-generated imagery (CGI).
“I think it’s a great opportunity to create STEM-related activities here in Cayman,” he said.
Clarke said his advice to young Caymanians is the same as the advice he tells his own kids: “Do what you like.”
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