Page 15 - AAA JANUARY - FEBRUARY 2014 Online Magazine

FEATURE ENVIROMENTAL IMPACT

Even things like the seasons change Sky for example), the development for Kowal says, “Aerospace is an essential
the equation. On a hot summer day the commercial use of sustainable jet fuels part of modern life. It helps drive
climb rate of an aircraft is affected by the and market based measures.” economic growth and prosperity; it brings
lower air density, so the pilot will need to the people of the world closer together.”
use more power for take-off and climb at a Almost ready for takeoff So we can’t simply drop the curtain and
slower rate, increasing the noise envelope So the news on the environment and stop developing and expanding. Things
for those on the ground. aviation is mixed. There is no doubt the are improving compared to the excesses
Jessica Kowal, spokesperson on entire industry is working hard to reach of early passenger and cargo noise and
Environment Policy Communications at targets to make aircraft 50% quieter, up pollution levels – but there’s still a long
Boeing Commercial Airplanes agrees to 25% more fuel efficient, less invasive way to go.
about the importance of ‘all-of-flight’ and more recyclable by 2020. But of all
planning, noting that: “We can build the polluters, aircraft are probably more
most efficient aircraft, but our customers visible, more in-my-backyard and more
lose those benefits if their airplanes and likely to cause comment than almost
passengers are stuck in holding patterns anything apart from smokestack-belching
or fly inefficient routes. That’s why we power stations.
continue to work with aviation stakeholders There is a lot of work to do, and
around the world to improve the efficiency an increasingly powerful incentive to
of the global air traffic network and our continue tackling the issue. Our industry
customers’ fleet operations.” depends on solutions, but as Canberra’s
Airbus, realistically, says that Byron accurately notes, there is no way
technology alone will probably not get the any built environment or transport system
aviation industry to the ICAO goal of carbon- can achieve an environment neutral
neutral growth in the airline industry state. “There is no chance we can have
by 2050. “It will feasible with the right no impact, especially as we all have a
combination,” says Debbane. “Technology, demanding world community for more,
modernisation of the Air Traffic more and more transport,” he says.
Management (with a Single European Yet at the same time, as Boeing’s

in Brazil and other tropical countries,”
explains Nilson Jair Santin, director
of Embraer’s socio-environmental
development department.
Santin says that supporting
sustainability also means working
on the development of commercially
and economically viable (besides
environmentally friendly) alternative
technologies. “The timeframe in which
[biofuel] viability will be reached
depends on several aspects beyond
the technological issue: investments
FUELLING A GREEN CHANGE on a fuel made from camelina plants, in research for materials in non-
Brazil-based Embraer takes its produced through a special “Esters of traditional bioenergy, organisation
environmental responsibilities seriously. Fatty Acids” hydro-process. And local of a strategic plan for production
It was the first manufacturer in the operator Azul Brazilian Airlines has and distribution, establishment
world to produce an aircraft fueled by successfully flown an Embraer E195 of regulatory policies aligned to
ethanol (the Ipanema, in October 2004) using renewable jet fuel produced from international certifications and so
and now runs 100% of its car and truck Brazilian sugarcane. on,” he notes. “So it is still early to
fleet on biofuel – either pure or mixed “The feedstock for the renewable jet determine a schedule, but the industry
with gasoline or diesel oil. It ran its first fuel is sugarcane, a highly desirable is committed to contribute to the
bio-kerosene jet flight tests in 2011, in biomass that can be produced development of a more sustainable
cooperation with GE. The aircraft ran sustainably in large-scale quantities aviation fuel soon as possible.”

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