Universal Hydrogen to Build Major New Facility in New Mexico

Albuquerque International Sunport will be the home of a large new hydrogen manufacturing and distribution facility to be built by Universal Hydrogen. The company has signed a letter of intent with the City of Albuquerque for 50 acres of a decommissioned runway, saying it will take one to two years for planning and construction of the facility with the goal of launching full-scale production in 2024. In addition to about 1,200 jobs during the construction phase, Universal Hydrogen anticipates hiring 500 employees and investing more than $250 million over the next seven years. Many of the jobs will be highly skilled engineers and composite technicians with attractive salaries and benefits. The project is expected to generate over $700 million in total economic impact over the next decade.

Universal Hydrogen utilizes proprietary capsules that safely store hydrogen during transportation and can be loaded directly into aircraft to serve as fuel tanks. The capsule-tank technology forms the foundation of a logistics network that can leverage existing cargo transportation infrastructure to move hydrogen from production facilities to airports without the need for new pipelines, tankers, or storage facilities. The company is also developing powertrain conversion kits to retrofit existing regional turboprop aircraft to fly on hydrogen. This multi-faceted strategy places Universal Hydrogen in a unique position to take advantage of the movement of aviation toward non-carbon-based fuel technologies in the industry’s effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.