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Caribbeans

(1,247 posts)
Sat Aug 16, 2025, 12:09 AM Aug 16

How Hydrogen-Powered Helicopter Flight Could Help Healthcare


Hydrogen helicopters are a developing technology that could offer a more sustainable alternative to traditional aviation fuel

How Hydrogen-Powered Helicopter Flight Could Help Healthcare

Healthcare-digital.com | August 15, 2025

Unither Bioelectronics completes the first crewed hydrogen-powered helicopter flight in Canada, advancing zero-emission aviation and medical transport

Unither Bioelectronics, a subsidiary of United Therapeutics, is hoping its short but crucial flight of a hydrogen-powered helicopter will be a "critical step" in zero-emissions healthcare aviation.

The modified Robinson R44 aircraft lifted off and hovered for three minutes and 16 seconds at Roland-Désourdy Airport in Bromont, Quebec. It demonstrates stable hover and manoeuvring ability throughout the trial.

This outcome is crucial for Project Proticity, a collaboration between Unither and Robinson Helicopter Company...more
https://healthcare-digital.com/news/inside-united-therapeutics-first-hydrogen-helicopter-flight

Robinson R44 Clipper

What next, a hydrogen powered flying car?
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How Hydrogen-Powered Helicopter Flight Could Help Healthcare (Original Post) Caribbeans Aug 16 OP
Hydrogen is made from dangerous fossil fuels overwhelmingly. It follows that its effect on healthcare is to kill... NNadir Aug 16 #1

NNadir

(36,419 posts)
1. Hydrogen is made from dangerous fossil fuels overwhelmingly. It follows that its effect on healthcare is to kill...
Sat Aug 16, 2025, 01:16 AM
Aug 16

...people, period, since fossil fuels kill people whenever they are used normally.



The caption:

Figure 1. Global current sources of H2 production (a), and H2 consumption sectors (b).


Progress on Catalyst Development for the Steam Reforming of Biomass and Waste Plastics Pyrolysis Volatiles: A Review Laura Santamaria, Gartzen Lopez, Enara Fernandez, Maria Cortazar, Aitor Arregi, Martin Olazar, and Javier Bilbao, Energy & Fuels 2021 35 (21), 17051-17084]
I referred to this graphic, and reproduced it, discussing a paper in the journal I discussed above here: The current sources and uses of hydrogen.


The death toll from the use of dangerous fossil fuels is reported here:

Global burden of 87 risk factors in 204 countries and territories, 1990–2019: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019 (Lancet Volume 396, Issue 10258, 17–23 October 2020, Pages 1223-1249). This study is a huge undertaking and the list of authors from around the world is rather long. These studies are always open sourced; and I invite people who want to carry on about Fukushima to open it and search the word "radiation." It appears once. Radon, a side product brought to the surface by fracking while we all wait for the grand so called "renewable energy" nirvana that did not come, is not here and won't come, appears however: Household radon, from the decay of natural uranium, which has been cycling through the environment ever since oxygen appeared in the Earth's atmosphere.

Here is what it says about air pollution deaths in the 2019 Global Burden of Disease Survey, if one is too busy to open it oneself because one is too busy carrying on about Fukushima:

The top five risks for attributable deaths for females were high SBP (5·25 million [95% UI 4·49–6·00] deaths, or 20·3% [17·5–22·9] of all female deaths in 2019), dietary risks (3·48 million [2·78–4·37] deaths, or 13·5% [10·8–16·7] of all female deaths in 2019), high FPG (3·09 million [2·40–3·98] deaths, or 11·9% [9·4–15·3] of all female deaths in 2019), air pollution (2·92 million [2·53–3·33] deaths or 11·3% [10·0–12·6] of all female deaths in 2019), and high BMI (2·54 million [1·68–3·56] deaths or 9·8% [6·5–13·7] of all female deaths in 2019). For males, the top five risks differed slightly. In 2019, the leading Level 2 risk factor for attributable deaths globally in males was tobacco (smoked, second-hand, and chewing), which accounted for 6·56 million (95% UI 6·02–7·10) deaths (21·4% [20·5–22·3] of all male deaths in 2019), followed by high SBP, which accounted for 5·60 million (4·90–6·29) deaths (18·2% [16·2–20·1] of all male deaths in 2019). The third largest Level 2 risk factor for attributable deaths among males in 2019 was dietary risks (4·47 million [3·65–5·45] deaths, or 14·6% [12·0–17·6] of all male deaths in 2019) followed by air pollution (ambient particulate matter and ambient ozone pollution, accounting for 3·75 million [3·31–4·24] deaths (12·2% [11·0–13·4] of all male deaths in 2019), and then high FPG (3·14 million [2·70–4·34] deaths, or 11·1% [8·9–14·1] of all male deaths in 2019).


The fossil fuel industry's ads to rebrand fossil fuels as "hydrogen," is rather like cigarette ads in the 1950's, claiming cigarettes were good for you.
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