Greener Skies 2009

Today's Guest Blogger is Tom Bud, a PhD student in the Department of Civil and Building Engineering at Loughborough University in the United Kingdom. Tom is completing a PhD thesis investigating future strategies for reducing the environmental impact of surface access travel to UK airports.

The aviation industry cannot be accused of resting on its laurels when it comes to its environmental responsibility. In recent years there have been notable and important advances in areas such as alternative fuels and airframe design. While these technologies may prove invaluable in securing the environmental sustainability of air travel in the medium to long term, their potential for significant emissions cuts in the short term are limited.

One area where emissions cuts are perhaps more feasible is airport surface access;, the means by which people access/egress airports by ground transportation. However, there is still much work to be done. Perhaps most notably there is an urgent need to reduce the share of journeys made by private car.

In the UK, for example, private car trips currently dominate the share of surface access journeys to airports. Passengers may have heavy luggage with them that can be difficult to take on public transport. It is also commonplace for passengers to be dropped off and picked up at the airport terminal by friends or relatives. This is especially environmentally intensive as four journeys are made to the airport instead of two had the passenger driven themselves. Should this pattern continue, it is likely that forecasted growth in UK air travel will result in raised levels of traffic congestion on airport roads, local noise and air pollution and increased climate change emissions.

It is not all doom and gloom however. For example, dedicated rail links at airports such as Stockholm Arlanda and Oslo-Garmeon have increased public transport access to these airports in recent years. In the UK, the opening of rail stations at Luton Airport Parkway and East Midlands Parkway has encouraged rail access to Luton Airport and East Midlands airport respectively. The majority of airports are connected to local bus services, but it is vital that they are regular, reliable and suitable for transporting luggage and serve a suitable geographical area.

In addition, airport operators have an important role to play in encouraging sustainable employee access. Travel Cards offering reduced fares on public transport for employees, car sharing schemes, interest free loans to purchase bicycles and other similar initiatives are in operation at some UK airports.

Significant short term reductions in surface access emissions are a very real and achievable goal. However, it is vital that airport operators work closely with local authorities, governments and other decision makers to ensure there are genuine, viable alternatives to the private car when it comes to accessing airports. Passengers, on the other hand, must quickly realise that the environmental impacts of their journey are not confined to the duration of the flight, but start from the moment they leave their front door.

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You may have (or, let's face it, may not have) heard about the project called Single European Sky. It is a project to streamline the current national airspace boundries that have the skies over Europe split into some 30 different blocks. Currently, flights crossing the European continent have to zig-zag across a number of different control zones. With a single European control zone, millions of tonnes of carbon emissions could be reduced (not to mention time saved) by flying straighter and smarter routes.

One of the major projects that is underway to enable a single European sky is called SESAR - this is a joint European Commission and Eurocontrol effort to produce the technical capability required. And it is here that we get on to another project (and more acronyms).

SESAR has joined with the FAA (Federal Aviation Administration - the US Government's aviation regulator) to run the AIRE programme (for more information on this - including what AIRE stands for - check out the video below). Today, SESAR and the FAA announced in Amsterdam the results of a year-long set of trails looking at different areas of flight operations and working with an impressive array of industry stakeholders.

Six projects were initiated, taking place in Paris (ground movements, green arrivals and departures), Madrid and Stockholm (green approaches and climbs), Portugal and Iceland (oceanic flight optimisation). In total, 1,152 flights took place during the AIRE trials in 2009. Analysis of the data collected show that 400 tonnes of CO2 could be saved by implementing these new techniques.

The Executive Director of SESAR, Patrick Ky had this to say: “The AIRE activities performed in 2009 have shown encouraging results. It is now essential that we transform them from ‘flight trials’ to ‘day-to-day operations’, in order to realise the full benefits of SESAR."

Almost as impressive as the fuel savings and all the acronyms are the group of people working on the project - over 1,400 engineers from organisations across Europe are working on various SESAR projects. In fact, over 300 projects are getting started. Collaborating on the AIRE project alone were the following industry partners: ADACEL, AENA, Aéroports de Paris, Airbus, Air France, AVTECH, DSNA, Egis Avia, Iberia, Icelandair, INECO, Isavia, LFV, Nav Portugal, Novair, TAP Portugal, TERN Systems and Thales. Just another example of impressive aviation industry coordination!

We've spoken about the benefits of retro-fitting winglets on aircraft before. Now, Aviation Partners Boeing, the makers of winglet devices for the Boeing 737, 757 and 767 have announced just how much these devices can save - as of tomorrow, March 5 at 19:05 in Seattle, blended winglets will have saved the world's airlines 2 billion gallons of jet fuel. This represents a global reduction in CO2 emissions of almost 21.5 million tonnes since they were first introduced in 2001.

These winglets are now flying on more than 3,700 aircraft around the world and many, such as Air New Zealand, are finding that they are saving more fuel than planned. Airbus is also getting in on the game, joining Aviation Partners to design blended winglets for their own models.

- Image from Flickr user Erwyn van der Meer.

My organisation, the Air Transport Action Group, is all about coordination of aviation industry partners for a greener future for flight. We bring together commercial rivals such as Airbus and Boeing and operational partners such as airports, airlines and air traffic control organisations in order to craft, plan and execute common environmental objectives, such as our cross-industry target of carbon neutral growth from 2020.

One example of such collaboration has just been announced - Heathrow Airport, Singapore Airlines, NATS (the UK's air traffic control organisation) and Airbus have been working on a project to implement new take-off and departures procedures for the A380 aircraft. By working together, these organisations have enabled take-offs using less power from the engines, followed by 'flexible acceleration' after the aircraft reaches 1,500 feet. This basically means the pilot is free to set the thrust of the engines to best match conditions for each flight - taking into full account wind speed and temperature etc.

This procedure will save on average 300 kilos of fuel (that's 945 kilos of carbon dioxide) off each take-off. When you consider that Singapore Airlines flies the A380 to Heathrow daily, that equates to an annual saving of just under 350 tonnes of CO2. Of course, the A380 is already a very efficient aircraft in its own right, as more of them enter service, new operational procedures will only add to that efficiency.

Now that Heathrow, NATS, Airbus and Singapore Airlines have been running the pilot programme for a year, the airport operator BAA is set to extend the programme to other operators of the A380 - Emirates and Qantas.

Good things happen when we work together!

- Image from Flickr user hyku

I have just found this video on CNN made during the Aviation & Environment Summit last year. We are already in planning mode for the 5th Aviation & Environment Summit, to be held in Geneva on 16 and 17 September. It comes at an important time for aviation - just a few weeks before the general assembly of ICAO - the industry's global regulator, and a few months ahead of the important COP16 climate talks to be held in Mexico.

Two pieces of news from Paris-based Eurocopter in the past week, as reported by Wired Magazine:

1) The helicopter company is working on perfecting diesel-driven engine to power a new generation of choppers which could see fuel consumption cut by 40%.

2) In a radical new design of rotor blades, futuristically named "Blue Edge", Eurocopter has managed to design a much quieter helicopter - I would explain how it works, but Wired does a much better job of it. When used in conjunction with another new technology, "Blue Pulse" which actually places movable flaps on the trailing edge of helicopter rotors much like the back of normal aircraft wings, the rotary-winged aircraft market is set to become quieter (and sound a lot like Knight Rider in its marketing materials). The video below demonstrates the noise difference between normal rotor blades and the Blue Edge type:

The field of aircraft recycling has really started to grow. It used to be talked of in terms of 'scrapping' aircraft once they had reached the end of their useful service life (often 20-30 years). Now, it is estimated that over 95% of a plane can be recycled, whether that be for spare parts or indeed melted down for use in other areas. In fact, manufacturers of aircraft like Airbus and Boeing are now designing aircraft not just with a safe and long life in mind, but how compatible they will be to recycling once their flying days are over.

The members of AFRA are currently able to recycle around 150 aircraft each year and, as more aircraft get replaced with newer, more efficient models, that number is set to increase. In fact, it is estimated that as many as 6,000 aircraft may retire over the next couple of decades.

As this film from the National Geographic Channel explores, recycling an aircraft can take much more planning than recycling your newspapers!

Actually, they aren’t going to exactly remove the cars from the road, but they will be taking the equivalent of 48,000 car’s carbon emissions out of the atmosphere with a new scheme announced today. They are going to be producing their own biofuel. Out of waste that would otherwise have been put into landfill.

British Airways have teamed up with US-based Solena Group to build a sustainable jet-fuel plant that can convert a variety of waste materials, normally destined for landfill, into aviation fuel. The plant will probably be located in east London and BA say that when it is fully up-and-running, it will be able to convert 500,000 tonnes of waste per year into 16 million gallons of green jet fuel through a process that offers lifecycle greenhouse gas savings of up to 95 per cent compared to traditional jet fuel.

What kind of waste? Well, almost anything organic (i.e. made of carbon) can be used – food waste from household kitchens or hotels and restaurants, industrial waste from food manufacturing plants, paper that can’t be recycled and agricultural waste.

“This volume of fuel would be more than twice the amount required to make all of British Airways' flights at nearby London City Airport carbon-neutral. Put another way, the fuel's reduction in carbon emissions would be the equivalent of taking 48,000 cars off the road per year.”

They plan to have part of their fleet running on this new fuel from 2014. It is a great vote of confidence from an airline to actually invest in this type of scheme and it comes a short while after KLM announced its new venture in the sustainable biofuel area. A good friend of ours, Jonathan Counsell who is Head of Environment at BA spoke to Sky News a short time ago:

But wait, there’s more

The reduction in carbon lifecycle emissions for the aircraft that use this fuel is not the only benefit. As BA said in their press release:

• The plant will emit oxygen, plus small quantities of nitrogen, argon, steam (water vapour), and CO2. The plant itself will be CO2 neutral.
• The left over gas can be used to produce 20MW of excess electricity for export to the national grid or converted into steam to be used in a district heating system.
• The only solid waste product is an inert vitrified slag material, which can be used as an alternative to aggregates used in construction.
• Through reducing landfill by around 500,000 tonnes per year, local authorities will save £36 million in landfill.
• Four sites in the east of London are among those under consideration for the construction of the bio-jet fuel plant.  The scheme will lead to the creation of up to 1,200 jobs in the area and could reduce significantly local authority landfill tax bills.

- Image by Flickr user caribb

Under new European regulation, all airlines flying in and out of Europe will be required to reduce carbon gas emission by 3% by the end of 2012. Yet movements this week would suggest many airlines are willing to go further…

Thai Airlines International intends to achieve 50% reductions in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, taking up the industry-wide targets layed out through ATAG. Working together with the Corporate Social Responsibility programme, they are aiming to reduce GHG emission on all flights through fuel and energy saving methods. One of the most effective ways for airlines to improve their energy and fuel efficiency is by modernising their fleet - this week, Thai Airways announced they would be acquiring 15 new energy-efficient aircraft by 2014!

Another airline is exceeding expectations, gaining recognition from a group of green advocates from the government, business and citizens' group in Seoul. This group, who make up the Climate Change Forum, awarded Asiana Airlines with a prize for its efforts in reducing carbon emissions through their carbon offsetting program, reducing weights of flights and cleaning engines to save fuel. The result has seen a carbon reduction of 30,000 tonnes from 2008.

Finnair has been looking beyond the air and the ground for measures in which they can contribute to global environmental efforts, announcing this week that they will be supporting the Baltic Sea Action Group (BSAG) in its work to improve the state of the Baltic Sea – the world’s most polluted sea. The idea behind the BSAG is to obtain as high quality research data as possible to support practical measures to restore the Baltic Sea and ensure that the right steps are taken for the good of the sea. Finnair's participation in the BSAG involves helping with travel arrangements, enhancing visibility and offering the possibility of donating Finnair Plus points. By donating 75,000 Finnair Plus points to BSAG, Finnair's frequent flyers can donate oil-spill containment boom to the rescue department, which provides protection against irreversible damage in the event of an accident.