SGGP
Today's latest generation aircraft consume 15% less fuel and therefore emit even less CO2 ...
The Airbus A320 first flew in 1987, while the Boeing 737 took to the skies 20 years earlier. The world ’s two most widely used aircraft have evolved over the years to burn less fuel. But the industry is accelerating those changes to meet the 2050 carbon neutrality target agreed to by the 193 member states of the International Civil Aviation Organization.
According to Mr. Christian Scherer, Chief Commercial Officer of Airbus, the latest generation of aircraft currently consumes 15% less fuel and therefore emits even less CO 2 , but the world's fleet in use still consists of three-quarters of aircraft from previous generations.
In a recent interview with Aviation Week, Airbus Chairman Guillaume Faury said the company aims to put the new aircraft into service by 2035.
Meanwhile, according to Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun, the US corporation will not build new aircraft until the technology is ready. “We are focused on developing capabilities that will help achieve fuel consumption reductions of 20% or more when bringing new products to market,” Mr. Calhoun said.
 |
Boeing Transonic Truss-Braced Wing Project Model |
Together with the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), Boeing has invested more than 1 billion USD in researching a revolutionary new structure called the Transonic Truss-Braced Wing - an aircraft with very long wings that can help reduce fuel consumption and CO 2 emissions by up to 30%.
The longer the wing, the less drag the plane has and the less fuel it uses, explains Philippe Beaumier, director of the civil aviation program at the French Aerospace Research Office. Airbus is also working on a wing with folding tips, inspired by the flight path of the albatross, to reduce turbulence in flight and save 10% on fuel consumption. Just like cars, aircraft manufacturers such as the US company Collins Aerospace are developing hybrid aircraft (a hybrid of gasoline and electric engines) to reduce fuel consumption.
According to Collins Aerospace, the company is developing electric motors with a capacity of 100kW - 1MW. Combining a 1MW electric motor with a heat engine will help reduce fuel consumption by about 30% and thus reduce emissions by an equivalent percentage.
British Rolls-Royce Group with the UltraFan project and American Pratt & Whitney Company with the project of reusing steam from fuel combustion, are also researching and manufacturing fuel-saving engines in the future...
In addition to focusing on technological solutions for aircraft design, to reduce pollution in the future, the development of non-carbonized aircraft fuels is also very important. Sustainable aircraft fuel (SAF) is an area of interest for many companies. SAF is made from biomass such as vegetable cooking oil, used cooking oil, such as waste oil recovered from restaurants; or it can also be electricity produced from non-carbonized sources or CO2 recovered from the air. The most widely used type of SAF today is HVO (Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil). There are factories producing this type of fuel in France, Europe, the US and many other places in the world.
Source
Comment (0)