Browsing by Issue Date, starting with "2021-02-16"
Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
Results Per Page
Sort Options
- Decarbonization of the Aviation Sector by 2050Publication . Pereira, Ivo Abrantes; Silva, André Resende Rodrigues da; Costa, Mário Manuel Gonçalves da; Ferreira, Ana Filipa da SilvaThe discussion about the environmental impact caused by aviation has gained greater prominence due to the increased demand for this sector and, consequently, the increase in the number of flights. Environmental concerns have stimulated the development of novel approaches to reduce pollutants and CO2 emissions. IATA presented the goals to globally reduce the amount of emissions produced by jet fuel consumption. In order to achieve these goals, IATA proposes a strategy based on four pillars. The present work provides quantitative data to support decision making for the first pillar of IATA strategy, which is to improve technology, including the deployment of sustainable lowcarbon fuels. Future aircraft technologies are identified through a literature review. Some of the most promising concepts for a mediumterm application are natural laminar flow, new engine architecture, blended wing body, strutbraced wing, boundary layer ingestion, doublebubble fuselage, and electric propulsion. In this sense, the present work evaluates and quantifies the impact of introducing new aircraft technologies, as well as the introduction of Sustainable Aviation Fuels (SAF) on the reductions of CO2 emissions. Therefore, two methodologies are used, a numerical model (FSDM) to forecast fuel consumption and CO2 emissions from the global air transport fleet. For the analysis of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) an approach is developed that considers, besides the SAF production, the feedstocks and the production pathway. Four cases and six scenarios are established to represent the technological improvements and to quantify the effects of new aircraft concepts and technologies on the future CO2 emissions. For the analysis of SAF, four scenarios and two conditions are established to assess the different production capacities and feedstocks. The combined effect of technologies with SAF is considered verifying if the goals proposed by IATA, namely, carbonneutral growth from 2020 and a reduction of 50% in net emissions by 2050 compared to 2005 levels, are achieved. The assessment results reveal that the goals cannot be met only with the combined action of technologies and the use of alternative fuels. Carbonneutral growth is only reached when it is considered the combined effect of technologies with the scenario where the amount of Sustainable Aviation Fuels introduced is higher (an increase of 15% annually between 2030 to 2050). However, this carbonneutral growth is only possible to start between 2038 to 2045, depending on each scenario considered for technological improvements.