SUSTAINIBILITY IN THE AVIATION INDUSTRY

INTRODUCTION:
The Aviation industry has become a significant part of the global society in the
present day. It is an essential driver of economic, cultural and social development
across the world and has become a prerequisite for growth. About 2% of global
greenhouse gas emissions is caused by the global aviation and it supports about 8%
of the world economic activity. With tremendous growth in air traffic, diminishing
carbon space availability and alarming increase in emission levels due to aviation,
sustainable aviation has gained unprecedented priority. This report describes
innovations that include aircraft designs, operational efficiency and alternative fuels
to achieve sustainability in the aviation industry. Indicators that can be used to
measure sustainability parameters in terms of inputs and outputs have been
described in the report.
AVIATION INDUSTRY:
Over the past 40 years, real cost of flying has fallen by 60%, thereby making it more
accessible. Although this has resulted in a phenomenal growth in demand, at the
same time aircrafts have become 75% more energy efficient and 75% quieter.
By 2030 the number of domestic and
internal passengers will reach six billion,
travelling via 50 million flights.
For almost 70 years, The International
Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), an
agency of the United Nations, has
ensured
a
safe,
secure
and
environmentally sound international civil
aviation. Presently ICAO is focussing on 4
key areas to address Greenhouse Gas
Emissions:
1) State Action Plans: National Action
Plans have been adopted by
member
states
to
reduce
emissions. ICAO arranges training
workshops
and
seminars
to
educate representatives.
2) Sustainable
Alternative
Fuels
(SUSTAF):
Most
crucial
area.
Availability of biofuel is a major hindrance towards more widespread use.
3) Market Based Measures (MBMs): Cost effective way to address emissions.
Member states have developed a framework for MBM implementations after
agreeing on the guiding principles

4) Global Aspirational Goals: Member states to review the aspirational goal of

carbon neutral growth from 2020 to explore a long-term goal. ICAO carbon
emission calculator and ICAO Fuel Savings Estimation tool used by
member states to make informed goals.
Further the role of international aviation is critical to the sustainable development
goals adopted by Rio +20
RELEVANCE OF AVIATION TOWARDS SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS:
Sustainable Cities: A vital component of any sustainable city is a sustainable and
efficient transportation system which is integrated with other cities. It ensured
connectivity among cities and business growth opportunities.
Disaster Readiness: During emergencies, the timely delivery of aid is critical in life
saving missions. The speed and reliability provided by aviation during such times
ensure timely delivery of humanitarian aid particularly food and medicine.
Jobs and Poverty Eradication: According to the Rio+20 report, the aviation industry
employs over 8.4 million people and further supports a greater number through
indirect employment. Apart from women employment via employment, Aviation is
also a critical part of the travel and tourism industry worldwide.
Energy: Increasing use of alternative fuels in the aviation industry is being
undertaken. Biofuels and blended with traditional jet fuels to power commercial
flights.
Green Economy: Moving ahead, innovation and cooperation will be essential to
address the sustainability challenge of the aviation industry. Increase in
environment regulations and consumer awareness will be enablers to sustainable
development.
SUSTAINABLE AVIATION (SA) UK:
Sustainable Aviation, a unique initiative in UK aimed at developing a joint
sustainability strategy between stakeholders, in its 4 th report highlighted three main
priorities: CO2 Road-Map by the UK industry, producing Noise Road-Map to
address the local environment challenge and generating awareness with key
stakeholders.
SA is involved in promoting the benefits of continuous climb operations (CCO) rather
than the stepped climbs operations. CCO ensures significant fuel savings and
emissions reductions.
The UK aviation industry has pioneered the development of new fuel and emission
efficient aircraft engines, such as Rolls-Royce Trent 1000, XWB and BR725.
ALTERNATIVE FUELS FOR SUSTAINABLE AVIATION:
With the rapid growth rate of aviation, the industry is forecasted to become fuel
constrained. Investigating the feasibility and assessing the impacts on the airplanes
of using alternative fuels is the need of the hour. 2 fundamental requirements for

any commercial jet fuel are: 1) Low weight per unit heat of combustion (BTU) for
payload transport. 2) Low volume per unit heat of combustion for efficient fuel
storage. Each of the alternatives have its own set of challenges:
a) Hydrogen Fuel: Although the cleanest alternative to petroleum, H2 is not a
fuel in itself and needs to an abundant source of energy along with a large
source of clean water. Further the handling, storage and poor volumetric heat
of combustion pose significant challenges.
b) Alcohols: Alcohols such as Methanol and Ethanol have poor mass and volume
heat of combustion
c) Biofuels: These are combustible liquids from renewables such as plant crops
or animal fats. Biofuels are a promising alternative as the challenges posed
here are surmountable. These challenges include the propensity to freeze at
operating temperatures and need to consume within limited time. Both of
these challenges can be addressed through adequate research. One area of
concern here is that the supply of biofuel is limited to the area of crop
cultivation to make the fuel. This would result in a shortfall in food production
due to scarcity of cultivable land.
d) Synthetic Jet Fuel: Produced from synthetic processes, the positives of
synthetic jet fuel include sulphur free fuel, thermal stability and low
particulate emissions. Poor lubrication and lower heat content are the 2 main
challenges posed by this fuel. If co2 emissions during the manufacturing of
synthetic jet fuel can be controlled, this can be considered as a viable long
term alternative.
TECHNOLOGY REVIEW FOR SUSTAINABLE AVIATION:
Aerospace International by the Royal Aeronautical Society of UK has described 25
new technologies, initiatives and operational efficiencies that could possibly make
air travel the greenest industry by 2050. Some of them include developing and
using advanced composites that will be lighter and stronger than present
composites, hydrogen fuel cells being used to power flight electricity consumption
such as in-flight entertainment systems, recycling up to 85% of the aircraft's
components, making use of geared Turbofans (GTF) that cause improvements in fuel
efficiency up to 20%, developing blended wing body aircraft leading to 20-30%
flying efficiency, laminar flow wings using new materials and suction technology,
advanced air navigation allowing more air traffic that enables delay reduction and
fuel savings, open-rotor engines that enable >30% fuel efficiency improvement and
using electric or hybrid or hydrogen powered ground support vehicles at airports to
lower carbon footprint.
OPERATIONAL IMPROVEMENTS:

Air Traffic Management (ATM) infrastructure improvements:

Inefficiencies in ATM cause stacking at busy airports along with queuing for
departure slots with engines running. Here operational measures can be
applied to the entire fleet and will have a greater impact than new engine or
aircraft designs which take a long span of time.

Air-to-air refuelling: This is implemented using short range airliners

causing up to 45% fuel efficiency improvements. Undertaking a distance of
15,000km in three hops in a medium sized aircraft uses 29% less fuel than
the same trip in a single flight over a distance of 15,000km.
Close Formation Flying: The most apparent benefit of close formation
flying is a uniform velocity field, which minimizes the transferred energy from
propulsion energy consumption. Studies have shown, a two aircraft formation
with the gap between aircrafts equal to 10% of the span, resulted in 4% fuel
savings. For the three aircraft inverted V formation with 10% gap, the fuel
savings equalled 7%.

NOISE ABATEMENT:
Over the past five decades, there has been significant reduction in noise levels of
airplanes
and
in
airports
through
technological innovations by manufacturers
in reducing the noise from airframes, engines
and undercarriages. There has been
tenfold increase in number of airports
that impose noise related restrictions.
One of the examples of innovation includes
the Silent Aircraft project by MIT and
Cambridge University that produced an aircraft and engine design having
imperceptible noise profile.
Some of the promising near future innovations include chevron nozzles, shielded
landed gears and high bypass engines with improved exhaust technology.
ENGINE TECHNOLOGIES:
The greatest fuel burn reductions in the past 60 years have come from better
engines. Engines are being developed that improve the propulsion efficiency
thereby reducing the fuel burn and simultaneously reducing NOx and noise
emissions. Beginning from innovations in turbofans, the focus shifted to better
compressors and materials to allow the core to burn at high temperatures and
pressures. This resulted in aircrafts that are 70% more fuel efficient than 40
years ago.
The current focus is making efficient turbofans by leaving the fan in the open to
incorporate open rotor designs that can make larger fans possible. Presently, RollsRoyce and Airbus are undertaking a joint study of open rotor configurations under
NACRE (New Aircraft Concept Research Europe) to balance the conflicting goals of
reducing fuel burn and NOx emissions.
AIRCRAFT DESIGNS:
The classic swept winged aircraft design has been evolving over the past few
decades and further scope to improve the lift-to-drag (L/D) ratio is now limited.
Improving L/D ratio is one of the most efficient ways to reduce fuel consumption and

the three main methods of improving L/D are: (a) Increasing the wing span (b)
reducing the vortex drag (c) reducing the profile drag area. A successful
design incorporates a balance between wing span and wing weight to minimize fuel
burn. There has been significant work on reducing the profile drag of the aircraft by
Boeing and Airbus under NACRE project.
INDICATORS FOR
SUSTAINAIBILITY:

MEASURING

ENVIRONMENTAL

AND

OPERATIONAL

Indicators are an effective measure for benchmarking different airports against their
sustainability efficacy. It helps to bring in objectivity in what can otherwise be open
to a diverse range of interpretation. A good set of indicators helps to make decision
makers an informed decision. Although performing Life Cycle Assessment is a better
method to measure sustainability, for large systems it becomes impractical to do so.
Thus a good set of indicators serves as a good substitute to measure resource
inputs, waste emissions and waste outputs generated. Such indicators can be
supplemented with a set of social and economic indicators to improve its usefulness
for benchmarking.
For abiotic resources as inputs to the airport site, the suggested indicators include
direct and indirect energy use, Total materials used other than water and total water
usage. For biotic input resources, bio-fuelled electricity consumption is an effective
indicator. For land, area of biodiversity land owned, land area paved and land area
under monoculture are suggested environmental indicators.
For measuring greenhouse gas emissions as outputs from airports, Greenhouse
gases in CO2 equivalent is a good indicator. Ozone depletion potential emissions
from airports can be measured using ozone depleting substances using CFC-11
equivalent. The indicators for solid hazardous wastes and toxic chemical emissions
are monthly volume arising (kg) and monthly volume recycled or reused. NMVOC
emissions are an indicator for VOC emissions that affect air quality. SOx and
NOx emissions that have acidification potential can be measured by local
atmospheric emissions. Eutrophication (BOD and heat) caused by discharges to
water can be quantified by Local water pollutants. Aircraft noise emissions are an
effective indicator for the noise pollution generated in this industry.
VOLUNTARY CARBON OFFSETTING SCHEMES:
In recent years, although technological change in the aviation sector is contributing
towards efficiency gains, it is outpaced by the growth in air travel. As an alternative
method, a number of companies have started offering voluntary compensation
schemes for those aware of environmental consequences of aviation, but who
cannot forego aviation altogether. Such organisations known as Carbon Offsetting
Organisations are viewed as a solution to solve the greenhouse gas problems of
aviation, particularly in the tourism industry. Of late, voluntary offsetting schemes
have rapidly grown in number and address individuals, organisations and industry.
Reasons for this range from personal environmental goals to public and government
expectations. Companies such as British Airways are already participating in
these schemes with over 50 organisations offering carbon offsets. Compensation

schemes mainly include 2 categories: biological sinks through afforestation or

reforestation and emission savings through efficiency gains or using renewable
energy sources to reduce GHG emissions. Although the total amount of emissions
through voluntary schemes is very less, the rapid growth of such schemes is an
encouraging sign. Further, carbon offsetting schemes have become popular with a
number of organisations, partly in anticipation of carbon trading for aviation in the
future. In conclusion, voluntary carbon offsetting remains an ambiguous solution
and requires substantial future research.

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