At this year's Berlin and Farnborough Air Shows, EADS showcased the world's first flight of an aircraft powered by pure biofuel made from algae. To great acclaim, a Diamond DA42 New Generation aircraft powered by two Austro AE300 engines took part in the daily flight demonstrations.

 
Only minor modifications and adjustments have to be made to the aircraft to run on algae based biofuel and consumption is lower compared to conventional JET-A1 fuel due to its high energy content.

"All other demonstrations with third-generation biofuel have been done with blends," said EADS research and technology chief Jean Botti. "This is the first time anyone has done it with 100% biofuel." Bench tests with algae biofuel in the AE300 engine indicate fuel savings of 5-10% over kerosene as the biofuel burns more efficiently. "We are amazed that it had better combustion than kerosene," added Botti.

Such developments are a good match with the efficiency goals set by IATA which include an average improvement in fuel efficiency of 1.5% per year to 2020, a cap on aviation CO2 emissions from 2020 to ensure carbon-neutral growth and a goal to reduce CO2 emissions 50% by 2050 compared to 2005.

EADS, its partners and many other companies are currently researching further to support the growth of an algae-powered industry. Cost efficiency is key in the immediate future: currently it is more expensive to produce fuel from algae in comparison to sourcing crude oil. So if algae-based fuel is to compete with kerosene, research and development work must aim to establish an effective mass production to ensure availability in the near future.

Another research project spearheaded by EADS is a concept helicopter featuring a diesel-electric hybrid propulsion system. With the potential to halve fuel consumption compared to a typical twin-turbine helicopter, it uses two opposed piston opposed cylinder diesel engines supplied by EcoMotors International of the USA to generate electrical power for the main and tail rotors.

The engines alone are around 30% more fuel efficient than today's turbine engines, while other weight savings and aerodynamic improvements facilitated by the hybrid architecture increase the total potential fuel saving to 50%, says EADS.

‘Research and Markets’ have provided us with some uplifting news this week, announcing the release of their new ‘Airports go green’ report. As we’ve noted in recent weeks, airports have made significant contributions in fighting climate change by adopting numerous strategies to limit their emissions. ‘Airports go green’ is dishing out some well-deserved praise to those airports that have acted to reduce their environmental impact, offering case studies and explaining the initiatives that have been taken. It is just this type of encouragement which will create the incentive for others to follow!

New cross-industry agreements are resulting in further improvements in the environmental performance of aircrafts. For example, the long-term supply agreement established this week between Honeywell and China Southern Airlines, which will see new Auxiliary Power Units installed in their Airbus A320’s and Boeing Next-Generation 737’s. This move is set to reduce fuel consumption by 5% per aircraft.
 
Looking forward, Airbus is expected to make an announcement in the coming weeks on the new winglet programme for the Airbus A320 family… once it has decided which winglet design it will use! Airbus has already said it will go ahead with the programme which will reduce fuel burn by 2% - 4% depending on the design chosen. So now all that’s left is to make the final decision: an Aviation Partners blended winglet design, or an Airbus-own design interestingly called "sharklets"?

In the news this week airports have shown positive improvements as they make their own contributions to lowering carbon emissions.

Sky Harbor International Airport, Pheonix, has announced plans to lower their carbon footprint by converting airport-based vehicles to alternate fuels and building a $1.1 billion automated train that aims to take thousands of cars off the streets near Sky Harbor. Measures are also being taken by airlines operating at Sky Harbor to cut emissions on the ground by replacing diesel-powered ground-support vehicles with electric versions.

San Francisco International Airport has also been working hard, becoming the first in the nation to allow passengers to off-set their carbon emissions from flights. Climate Passport kiosks located in the airport determine how many pounds of CO2 a trip will produce and calculate accordingly how much an environmentally-friendly traveler should contribute in order to off-set their travel. Passengers are then able to purchase these certified carbon offsets.

In other news, the European Voice published an interesting piece on the aviation industry’s development of new fuels and innovative technology. The article talks of the vast improvement we have witnessed in biofuel development, as it has gone from being simply an “interesting concept” to being tested in flights in just 18 months. Also mentioned, is the new ‘silent’ aircraft, the Sax-40, an aircraft designed with wings that blend seamlessly into the body of the plane, reducing noise and carbon emissions.

The aviation industry, it seems, is well on the way to achieving its very ambitious targets!

This Airbus A320 aircraft flew last month with a new addition. While the aircraft might not look too different from an ordinary A320 at first glance, the observant among you will notice the presence of winglets on this narrowbody jet. A320's normally have small 'wingtip fences', but the winglets on this testbed aircraft are a lot larger and will potentially save even more fuel (and therefore emissions) by improving the aerodynamics of the wing. The trials of these blended wingletson the A320, produced by Aviation Partners, are expected to take around three months.

Today, we have news of a number of different projects underway encompassing many parts of the aviation industry, across a number of countries. I decided to put them all into one post, because this really illustrates the coordinated and cooperative nature of aviation – we work best when we work together, both on a day-to-day basis in order to move millions of passengers, as well as on a research, development and strategic level.

The image above is one of a number of concept aircraft that has recently been revealed from a NASA-funded programme being led by the whizz-kids at MIT. The team, which also includes Boeing’s enticingly-named Phantom Works group, Pratt & Whitney, Aerodyne Research and Aurora Flight Sciences has been tasked with producing a plane for 2030 that is quieter, more energy efficient and greener. Given that our industry has a record of coming up with catchy names for new designs (the jumbo, the guppy, the super-jumbo), what are some appropriate nicknames for this particular aircraft? Post your thoughts in the comments form and the response with most creative name will receive an enviro.aero USB memory stick…

Of course, technology is just one of the four pillars the industry is working on for a greener future. Improved operations and more efficient infrastructure are two other areas. A programme conclusively demonstrating how cooperation among all industry partners and utilisation of technology, operational and infrastructure efficiencies can help achieve our goals is the ASPIRE project underway across the Pacific. Three demonstration flights are being held this year to show what is possible. Air New Zealand and Qantas have already undertaken flights and this Friday, a United Airlines 747 service from Sydney to Los Angeles will perform another so-called ‘perfect flight’.

Once Friday’s demonstration flight is complete, it will be up to the airlines, airports and air navigation services involved to incorporate these techniques in everyday operations. In essence: try as much as possible to make every flight across the vast expanse of the Pacific Ocean a perfect flight.

Following on from previous blog posts, Air New Zealand and Boeing have announced the date for the next major biofuel test flight. A 50:50 blend of biofuel made from the Jatropha plant and normal Jet-A1 fuel will be used in one engine of a Boeing 747 on 3 December. The aircraft will take off from my old place of work, Auckland Airport and spend some time in the air perfoming various test manouvers, before landing at Auckland again. These test flights are an important part of the ongoing process by airlines, manufacturers and biofuel suppliers to develop a sustainable biofuel suitable for use in flight.

And of interest is this Scientific American article which explores the FAA-funded research project into a new satellite-based system that will help aircraft land more accurately in low visibility or at airports with difficult approaches. While this is a major safety initiative, it also has some very positive environmental knock-on effects. Smoother landings that can be planned and executed more efficiently will also reduce emissions and noise.

Airports should not be forgotten, with BusinessGreen profiling just a few of the many innovations being incorporated into new airport terminals. One example cited includes a new Japanese airport which plans to cool the temperature in its terminal during the summer by using snow stored from the winter. Would it be too cheesy to say this was "a really cool idea"? Probably.

- Image from Aurora Flight Sciences, via MIT’s News Office

The race to the White House is not the only race making news at the moment. Last week, I wrote about some of the work being done on a new type of very efficient aircraft engine by Rolls-Royce. Well, it seems that GE Aviation have teamed up with NASA to run similar tests, according to a piece in the blog Earth2Tech. Pratt & Whitney and Snecma are also working on similar engine systems so it looks like we once again have a technology race underway in the aviation industry! But the virtue of competition in this field is that each company pushes the others to be better and ultimately delivers airframe manufacturers and airlines a better (and more efficient) product.

Also in the news over the past couple of days, the UK-based Carbon Trust announced what they say will be the world’s most ambitious algae-based biofuels research project. Their aim is to commercialise a fuel made from algae by 2020. However, the aviation industry has been talking about this and leading research for some time, with Boeing this week saying that they can expect a commercial aviation use for fuel made from algae within perhaps three years. They are well on their way with the Sustainable Aviation Fuel Users Group announced last month which, as Boeing says: “makes commercial aviation the first global transportation sector to voluntarily drive sustainability practices into its fuel supply chain”.

The race to be the first industry making substantial use of sustainable biofuels? We’re ready and up for the challenge!

- Photos from Flickr users Poissantfamily and Peppergrasss

An exciting announcement today from Airbus who have launched a competition called Fly Your Ideas, aimed at getting relevant university students to work on aviation's next big advancement in environmental performance. With a top prize of 30,000 euros, the technology challenge is open to college and university students from around the world, studying a degree, Masters or PhD in any academic discipline. The proposals can look at a wide range of topics including new materials, products and/or processes as well as aircraft performance, manufacturing and organisational and operational performance. More information can be found on the Fly Your Ideas website, with the winners being announced at Le Bourget Airshow in Paris next year.

Airlines are increasingly seeing the benefits of retro-fitting older aircraft with new technologies available that help save fuel and reduce emissions. Partially, this is because of the high oil price suddenly making the return on investment period a lot shorter, but it also reflects the new emphasis within a lot of airlines on operating greener fleets. Sometimes, it may have a bit to do with making your aircraft look, well, cooler...

Take winglets. These are the upturned extensions to normal aircraft wings which not only look 'sexy' as one journalist recently put it, but also provide some massive savings in fuel use. In fact, it is estimated that by 2014, these retro-fitted winglets could save up to five billion gallons of jet fuel across the industry. While some Boeing and most Airbus aircraft have wingtip devices built into them at the point of manufacture, a company called Aviation Partners Boeing makes the 737 and 757 blended winglets that have proved very popular, with nearly 2,500 aircraft having had the technology fitted. Now, another of the industry's workhorses - the Boeing 767 - has had winglets created for it . Among the 10 launch customer airlines for the new (and, at 3.4 meters, tall) winglets are American Airlines, Air New Zealand and Hawaiian Airlines. There is even work being undertaken into the possibility of retro-fitting them on to 777 aircraft.

Another idea that has been floating around the aviation industry for a little while is the use of these exotic 'spiroid' wingtips, which help decrease drag even further...

Image: http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spiroids

I will leave it to you to decide whether or not they are sexy, but as Air New Zealand alone believes its normal 767 winglets will save over $7.5 million worth of fuel and 12,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide each year on its 767 fleet , we can certainly call winglet technology a good investment.

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Recycling can take many forms, both process-driven - and creative.

On enviro.aero, we are highlighting the ways in which the aviation industry is using technology and operational procedures to get better use out of aircraft while they are in service. There is also a lot of work being done by a number of players to work out how we can get the best use from planes once their flying days are up.

I really like this video which shows, in high speed, how recycling an aircraft is done properly.

It is estimated that something like 95% of an airliner is able to be salvaged and used again for a variety of purposes. But there are less... destructive... ways of recycling the workhorses of the aviation industry.

When I was growing up in rural New Zealand, one of the highlights of a family trip to the 'big city' of Auckland was stopping off at a converted DC3 that had been turned into a tea-rooms and tourist attraction for the small village of Mangaweka...

But I have just heard that Swedish entrepreneur Oscar Dios has gone one step further - he is opening a hostel in a retired 747-200. 

I know where I am staying when I am in Stockholm next!

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