Transport Energy/Emission Research (TER)’s Post

𝐑𝐞𝐯𝐨𝐥𝐮𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐢𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐀𝐢𝐫 𝐓𝐫𝐚𝐯𝐞𝐥: 𝐇𝐨𝐰 𝐀𝐥𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐧𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐅𝐮𝐞𝐥𝐬 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐆𝐚𝐦𝐞? ✈️🌿 The impact of aviation on the environment due to CO₂ and non-CO₂ emissions must be reduced to improve quality of life and protect our planet. A potential solution to mitigate the climate impact of aviation and improve local air quality around airports is to reduce specific jet fuel constituents, such as aromatics and sulphur. For further insights into alternative fuels and how they are becoming the game-changers in aviation, check out the latest study by LBST on electricity-based Sustainable Aviation Fuels (e-SAF). 🔗 https://bit.ly/429jw1A #AviationInnovation #ClimateAction #PowerToLiquids #PtL #RenewableEnergy #AviationResearch #CleanEnergyFuture #SAF

Non-CO2 effects from aviation, including nitrous oxides emissions and contrail formation, are known to have an impact on the climate. While the knowledge of these effects today may not be as extensive as that of CO2, scientific consensus, gathered by EASA in its 2020 report, highlights that their warming effects could have a similar impact as CO2, or even larger. Acknowledging their environmental impact, the groundbreaking EU ETS agreement adopted in 2022 has paved the way for addressing non-CO2 effects by requiring the development of a Monitoring, Reporting and Verification (MRV) framework. This represents a historic first step to understand and act as appropriate on non-CO2 effects, as it can help boost research and inform policymakers and the aviation industry on the best set of policies and incentives for their effective mitigation. 👉 Limiting the scope of the non-CO2 monitoring tool risk limiting both our understanding and ability to mitigate the impact of non-CO2 effects of aviation.

So, it turns out attempts to improve aircraft efficiency are actually making climate change worse 😬 Imperial College London research has found out that modern aircraft - those with design improvements that allow them to fly higher and use less fuel - produce more contrails, which have a significant warming effect alongside the CO2 already emitted ☁ This may not come as a huge shock to those who have been working on the environmental impacts of aviation for some time, but what the study also uncovered is that - surprise, surprise - private jets are the worst offenders of all. The super-rich, who we already know excessively use private jets to avoid human and air 'traffic', are soaring 40,000ft above us all now creating 'outsized contrails' equivalent to a commercial plane carrying hundreds of passengers. On top of that, the fuel they burn still goes untaxed (the only transport fuel that isn't), affording these multi-millionaires even more opportunity to avoid paying their fair share for the inequitable damage they are wreaking on our climate 😠 What's your views on private jets? Should they be forced to only use #SAF, have a levy and/or taxation put on them, or be banned altogether? 🗨 Progress towards reaching #netzero aviation is drastically off course - we need to be making significant steps now and over the next few years to curb the unmitigated growth of the sector, whilst accelerating the adoption of actual sustainable alternative fuels alongside zero-emission technologies, like hydrogen aircraft ✈ Climate Catalyst is working to help make that happen - get in touch if you want to hear more about our aviation programme or check out our website here 👉 https://bit.ly/4cBdTxk #sustainableaviation #aviation #aviationews #contrails #climatechange #climateaction #hydrogen #sustainableaviationfuel https://bit.ly/4dmocGe

Just like with #lightpollution, aggravated by the choice of #whiteLED to the detriment of less efficient but with lower overall environmental impacts, #amberLED, here is yet another example of how #efficiency, in itself, is a totally meaningless metric *if* the others impacts are not taken into account (here, on the #climate, in the case of LEDs, in the increase in #emissions of the pollutant "#artificiallight"). #poluiçãoluminosa #eficiência #ALAN #imission

Did you know that aviation not only has a climate impact through CO2 but also through so-called non-CO2 effects? Chapter 4.4 of the E-SAF study we conducted for Deutsche Aircraft explains these mechanisms with regard to the share of non-CO2 effects in the overall climate impact and the near ground pollutant emissions. These are largely caused by specific jet fuel constituents such as aromatics and sulphur. Overall, e-SAF can significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions! Using the RED II and CORSIA methodologies, Liquefied Hydrogen (LH2) and Power-to-Liquids (PtL) produced from renewable electricity both already show well-to-wake greenhouse gas emissions which are already significantly lower than those of fossil kerosene and crop-based biofuels. The abovementioned additional lower climate impact due to reduced non-CO2 effects further add to the benefit compared to drop-in sustainable aviation fuels compliant with current jet fuel standards . If you want to learn how alternative fuels can mitigate the environmental impact of aviation, check out the e-SAF study: 🔗 https://lnkd.in/ex3iKYpQ

We encourage our members to read the latest study from 4AIR as it sheds light on a critical topic for the business aviation community: non-CO2 emissions. While CO2 emissions are often the focal point of aviation’s environmental impact, research shows these emissions could account for only one-third of the industry's climate effect. The majority stems from high-altitude NOx emissions and contrail-induced cirrus clouds. To better understand business aviation's contribution, 4AIR conducted the largest flight-by-flight analysis of contrail and NOx emissions. 6,000+ flights and 27,000+ flight hours were examined using historical weather data and the CoCiP contrail prediction model. While this data is not meant to be representative of the entire business aviation industry, particularly as it covers only a non-representative sample of the aircraft types, mission profiles, and geographic concentration that business aviation covers, some of the key findings for business aviation are set out below: ✅Contrail mitigation in business aviation: There is a significant opportunity to reduce contrail impacts in Business aviation, potentially with minimal CO2 tradeoffs or even savings. ✅Substantial impact with minimal adjustments: Adjustments on just 50 flights out of 16,888 would have reduced the non-CO2 impact from this sample by more than 50% overnight. ✅Complexity of climate optimisation: A perfectly climate optimised flight will always be difficult in aviation due to the impacts aviation has, that unlike CO2, are not linearly related to the consumption of fuel and depend on background atmospheric conditions. ✅Focus on high-impact flights: Understanding the regional, seasonal, and altitude-dependent impacts of aviation will help to target flights with the biggest impact and better design effective operational or technological solutions. Read the full study👇 https://lnkd.in/eGfv3FVP

In a first-of-its-kind partnership, United Airlines and NOAA: National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration have teamed up to equip one of United's commercial planes with a new set of scientific instruments to monitor gas pollution from up in the air. Why is this such a big deal? The partnership will give scientists at NOAA a much clearer picture of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere — over different cities and during different seasons and weather conditions. All while United's plane flies its normal route. According to Dr. Sarah Kapnick, "Having more information about what's happening in the life cycle of that molecule when it's in the atmosphere is really important for us understanding the impact it has on pollution, on weather forecasting, and climate." By using United's commercial jets, this research can be done at just 1% of the cost of using research aircraft. And if this first iteration goes well, it could be just one of many commercial aircraft carrying NOAA's instruments in the future. That'll give scientists the data they need not just to track the gases but also to more thoroughly understand and potentially predict the weather, which will help the general public immensely. Bottom line: More data about what's going on in the atmosphere is another step toward clearer, cleaner skies. 👉 Learn more here: https://lnkd.in/eDS-7PGg And big thanks to Laurelle Stelle for the writeup! #innovation #sustainability #climatesolutions

Aviation Insights #5 Article: Powering aircraft with 100% sustainable aviation fuel reduces ice crystals in contrails Published Year: 2024 DOI: https://lnkd.in/eNz6aZ9i The article aimed to assess the impact of using 100% sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) on reducing contrail formation and its climate impact, compared to conventional Jet A-1 fuel. ✈️ Some of the key findings of this article: 💡The study found that using 100% sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) significantly reduces the number of ice crystals formed in contrails compared to conventional Jet A-1 fuel, leading to a 56% decrease in ice particle numbers per mass of burned fuel. 💡SAF produced fewer soot particles (35% reduction compared to Jet A-1), which plays a role in the decreased ice crystal formation. Lower soot emissions from SAF contribute to less contrail-induced climate forcing. 💡Most of the SAF are considered "drop-in fuels." This means they can be used in existing aircraft engines and fuel infrastructure without requiring modifications. SAF can be blended with conventional jet fuels like Jet A-1 and still meet the same performance and safety standards, making them a practical and immediate solution for reducing aviation emissions. 💡SAF contains a higher percentage of hydrogen compared to conventional jet fuels, which contributes to more efficient combustion and reduced soot production. Global flight distance is expected to increase by four times by 2050 compared to 2006 levels, which could result in a threefold rise in contrail cirrus radiative forcing, based on projections from the Aviation Environmental Design Tool (AEDT). This highlights the urgent need to implement sustainable solutions in the aviation industry to mitigate the growing environmental impact. #SustainableAviationFuel #GreenAviation #SAF #ContrailReduction #ClimateAction #NetZeroAviation #CleanEnergy

Great article from Bloomberg highlighting the incredible (lack of) supply vs (enormous) demand dynamics for sustainable aviation fuels #saf. "In the US, sustainable aviation fuel use needs to grow 122-fold by 2030 in order to hit airline targets." That's just more than five and half years from now! Companies, like our friends at Wastefront, that have fast-track pathways to produce SAF from abundant, homogeneous feedstocks are going to be huge winners here. Watch this space! #airlines #jetfuel #infrastructure #sustainableinvesting https://lnkd.in/edbCWJ2m

While aviation ✈ accounts for around 2.5% of global CO2 emissions, its overall contribution to climate change is higher. Along with emitting CO2 from burning fuel, planes also affect the concentration of other atmospheric gases and pollutants. They generate a short-term increase but a long-term decrease in ozone and methane, and increased emissions of water vapor, soot, sulfur aerosols, and water contrails. While some of these impacts result in warming, others induce a cooling effect. But overall, the warming effect is stronger https://lnkd.in/dpuznnuV Recent research has quantified the overall effect of aviation on global warming when all of these impacts were included. To do this, the researchers calculated the so-called “radiative forcing”. Radiative forcing measures the difference between incoming energy and the energy radiated back to space. If more energy is absorbed than radiated, the atmosphere becomes warmer. Taking all of these effects into account, the authors estimate that aviation has accounted for approximately 3.5% of effective radiative forcing to date. Another study estimates that it has been responsible for 4% of global temperature rise since pre-industrial times https://lnkd.in/duv33wMP #aviation #climatechange #emissions #sustainability #carbonfootprint #greentransport #cleanenergy #netzeroemissions #radiativeforcing