Aviation

Aviation accounts for 3% of global CO2 emissions, however this is set to rise as demand grows at 5% per year. At present no significant measures are in place to reduce emissions. There are two areas of research within the DTC on aviation.

The first looks at the short to medium term measures that can be taken to increase operational efficiency of aircraft. Whilst aircraft efficiency is improving, there are additional operational measures to reduce fuel use, such as continuous descent approaches. Research is exploring how the use of new cockpit technologies can be used to enable wider implementation of these procedures. Challenges of how to bring together diverse stakeholders across multiple airlines and airports worldwide must also be addressed and are being examined in this work.

The second area looks at the long term prospect of using alternative fuels in aviation. Alternative fuels have differing combustion characteristics due to their altered chemical make-up, which in the terms of tail pipe emissions leads to a reduction in NOX emissions and a reduction in total black carbon mass, but a potential increase in black carbon particle number. The research aims to create a series of alternative fuels scenarios and in conjunction with a global 3D aerosol model integrated in to a global 3D chemical transport model assess the future impact of alternative fuels on ozone, aerosols and their result impact on radioactive forcing.