Reducing emissions at the gate, and everywhere else

This may not be a glamourous shot of a new type of sexy aircraft, but those two yellow pipes are delivering pre-conditioned air to the passengers on board this A380 and are helping to make aircraft ground operations more fuel efficient.

Yesterday a group of 15 airports in the United Kingdom which together represent 70% of the passenger traffic announced the implementation of a set of guidelines to reduce emissions from aircraft while they are on the ground. Over 95% of aviation's carbon emissions occur as aircraft fly, but airports can make a significant dent in the remaining 5% by implementing a number of small projects - many of which are outlined in the UK Airport Operators Association guidelines.

The guidelines have been developed by airport operator BAA and taken up by Heathrow, Stansted, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen, Southampton, Manchester, Bournemouth, East Midlands, Humberside, Belfast City, Birmingham, Bristol, Gatwick and Newcastle airports. They include reduced engine taxiing (such as taxiing on one engine) as well as use of fixed electrical ground power and pre-conditioned air, instead of keeping auxiliary power units running on planes when stationary. It is estimated that these two projects at Heathrow are already saving 100,000 tonnes of CO2 per year.

All across Europe, airports are part of the Airport Carbon Accreditation programme that has been developed by ACI Europe. At their annual conference a couple of weeks ago, ACI announced that, through this programme, airports in Europe had saved an estimated 411,390 tonnes of CO2 in 2009 alone as they move towards carbon-neutral status.

And airports might need to consider expanding their cargo areas, if Professor Sir David King has his crystal ball shined correctly - he is forecasting that within a decade we will see some non-urgent shipments being flown by a new generation of air ships, reducing emissions and leaving the normal planes to concentrate on passengers...

Fonte: Enviro.aero

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