Tag: Aviation

TRANSPORT: New “Wingprint” for Aviation

Posted on by Building The World

 

“Dutch roll” animation by Piaschol, 2008. Creative Commons 0, public domain. Included with appreciation.

Flying on leftovers, sugar, fat, and corn waste – recipe for Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) – Virgin Atlantic’s Boeing 787 flew from London’s Heathrow to New York’s JFK, joining Emirates and Gulfstream in demonstrating a new “wingprint” for aviation. In some ways, it was just a proof-of-concept: there were no passengers or cargo. But nevertheless, it is a significant milestone for an industry that seeks climate-sensitive solutions to air transport emissions.

1903, December 17 – Take Off! Wright’s first flight. Historic photograph, public domain, Included with appreciation.

1903 to 2023 – just over a century after the Wright Brothers made the first successful flight of a heavier-than-air craft, aviation has begun to transition to sustainable and renewable fuel sources. Recently, Emirates claimed the honor of being the first airline to demonstrate flight of an A380 with 100% SAF. But the aircraft used SAF fuel in only one of the plane’s four engines. Other aviation industry leaders including Airbus, Engine Alliance, Pratt & Whitney, Neste, Virent and others joined the quest. Just days earlier, Gulfstream Aerospace, leader in business and private air travel, completed a transatlantic flight from Savannah, Georgia to Farnborough airport in England. using 100% SAF. Using Pratt & Whitney PW815GA engines, flight fuel was composed of hydroprocessed esters and fatty acids (neat HEFA) biofuel.

“Types and generation of biofuels” by Muhammad Rizwan Javel, et al., 2019. Creative Commons 4.0. Included with appreciation.

What is Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF)? It is a fuel produced from non-petroleum based , renewable “feedstocks” that may include food and yard waste from landfills, fats and greases from leftovers in commercial kitchens, and woody biomass. Suppliers include Neste and World Energy. In the United States. the Department of Energy, Department of Transportation, and other agencies signed a Memorandum of Understanding termed the “SAF Grand Challenge” to produce 3 billion gallons (ll billion liters) per year by 2030 and 35 billion gallons (132 billion liters) per year by 2050.

International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) Logo. Public domain. Included with appreciation.

When the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) met, this week, for the Conference on Aviation and Alternative Fuels, Emirates’, Gulfstream’s, and Virgin’s achievements served to accelerate progress towards the goal of making all aircraft capable of flying with 100% SAF by 2030. Presently, commercial airlines can use only 50% SAF while safety tests continue.

Aviation’s new wingprint – dawn of a era. Image: “Flying through the sunrise” by Lenny K. Photography, 2015. Creative Commons 2.0. Included with appreciation.

SAF could reduce air travel’s carbon “wingprint” by 70%.  How? SAF does emit the same amount of greenhouse gases when airborne, but it is made from plants like corn that have already absorbed CO2 before they were cut. So in a sense, SAF is considered cleaner. SAF does not come cheap: it costs 6 times more than regular jet fuels like kerosene. Another factor is land use. Growing enough plants for biofuels would use a lot of land: in the UK, it would consume half of available agricultural land. Instead of traditional biomass SAF, environmental advocates advise development of synthetic fuels made by blending green hydrogen with carbon captured energy. Innovators in what is termed “synthetic kerosene” include Shell, KLM, and start-up Twelve Corporation. The global SAF market, including synthetic kerosene, is predicted to grow by 47% from 2023 to 2030.

Austin, Katy. “Groundbreaking transatlantic flight using greener fuel lands in the US.” 27 November 2023. BBC. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-67548961

Department of Energy (DOE), United States. “Sustainable Aviation Fuel.” https://afdc.energy.gov/fuels/sustainable_aviation_fuel.html

Emirates. “Emirates world’s first airline to operate A380 demonstration flight with 100% Sustainable Aviation Fuel.” 22 November 223. https://www.emirates.com/media-centre/emirates-worlds-first-airline-to-operate-a380-demonstration-flight-with-100-sustainable-aviation-fuel/

General Dynamics. “Gulfstream completes world’s first trans-Atlantic flight on 100% sustainable aviation fuel.” 20 November 2023. Cision/General Dynamics. https://www.prnewswire.com/new-releases/gulfstream-completes-worlds-first-trans-atlantic-flight-on-100-sustainable-aviation-fuel-301993029.html

International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). https://www.icao.int/

Prisco, Jacopo. “Plane will fly from London to New York with 100% sustainable aviation fuel. Experts say it’s not a fix.” 28 November 2023. CNN. https://www.cnn.com/2023/11/28/travel/first-transatlantic-flight-saf-climate-scn-spc

Shell. “World first – synthetic kerosene takes to the air.” https://www.shell.com/business-customers/aviation/100years/flying-together/synthetic-kerosene.html

Twelve Corporation. https://www.twelve.co

Building the World Blog by Kathleen Lusk Brooke and Zoe G. Quinn is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 U

 

TRANSPORT: Ask Alice

Posted on by Building The World
Alice: electric and ready to fly. Image: Eviation and Wikimedia.

Alice is a bit unusual looking. But she may be just what the world is looking for. The name, given to a new aircraft build by Eviation, Alice is a plane powered by three rear-facing push-propellers. It’s electric, and it promises to transport nine passengers, and two crew, at 276 mph (440 km/h) for 650 miles. Eviation, located in Israel, may be soon flying between Boston and Hyanis; Cape Air has ordered a number of Alice aircraft. The market for short-range air travel is considerable, but environmentally questionable. Alice may change that: using electricity. It’s also cheaper: using conventional fuel, 100-mile flight costs $400; with electricity, $8-$12: overall cost per hour is estimated at $200. The market is developing quickly. MagniX is working with Vancouver’s Harbour Air to electrify their fleet. Rolls Royce, Airbus, Siemens, and United Technologies are all working on electric aircraft; Zunum Aero, backed by Boeing, uses a French engine from Safran; EasyJet is using Wright Electric for potential flights from London to Amsterdam.

TVA logo: Image: thanks to Social Welfare Library, Virginia Commonwealth University.

When electricity first began to be used for commercial and consumer applications, the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) built a new town just to demonstrate the new power source for refrigerators, toasters, and porch lights. The Town of Norris was the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) of its time. Now electricity will see a new era, as battery storage improves through innovation. According to UBS, aviation will soon move to hybrid and electric aircraft. Zero emissions; cheaper; quieter – it’s an answer to the environmental and financial costs of regional travel. Electricity may be looking up: go ask Alice.

Bailey, Joanna. “Who is Alice? – An Introduction To the Bizarre Eviation Electric Aircraft.” 26 June 2019. Simple Flying. https://simpleflyingcom/eviation-alice-electric-aircraft/.

Bowler, Tim. “Why the age of electric flight is finally upon us.” 24 June 2019. BBC/Business.

Eviation. https://www.eviation.co/alice/

Take a test flight from the Paris Air Show: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8rr4q717HUrQHilER6DcaQ.

Building the World Blog by Kathleen Lusk Brooke and Zoe G Quinn is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported Licen