Environmental impacts in the civil aviation sector: Current state and guidance

Prospective Life Cycle Inventory Datasets for Conventional and Hybrid-Electric Aircraft Technologies

“…It is additionally worth noting that the results obtained when computing the carbon footprint of our LCI datasets are consistent with previous studies in the literature, in particular, the study by Lopes (2010), who reported 126 g CO 2 -eq/pkm (using ReCiPe2008, v. 1.04;Huijbregts et al, 2017) for medium-to long-haul flights, with a same identification of main contributors, namely the crude oil production feeding into the fuel production (Lopes, 2010). Rupcic et al (2023) provided ranges of carbon footprints for different propulsion systems that align with the value found in the current study, i.e., 150 g CO 2 -eq/pkm for conventional long-haul flights (Ueckerdt et al, 2021).…”

“…The LCI datasets can be integrated into environmental databases, such as ecoinvent, and used by practitioners to perform more detailed LCAs of aviation systems (Wernet et al, 2016). Few LCI data are currently publicly available, partly due to confidentiality requests from industrial stakeholders, and there is a need for the generation of LCI datasets to enable more LCA applications (Rupcic et al, 2023). For example, in Europe, the recently launched Clean Aviation program, which has embarked major aviation stakeholders in Europe to develop future aircraft technologies, requires LCA to be applied to the developed aircraft systems to facilitate ecodesign.…”

“…The first gap arises from the limited availability of Life Cycle Inventory (LCI) datasets specific to emerging technologies associated with aviation systems (Rupcic et al, 2023). LCI datasets are compilations of input and output flows, including both intermediary flows (e.g., products, materials, processed energy, waste, etc.)…”

“…Within the literature, studies remain to assess direct fuel combustion emissions (Prussi et al, 2021), compare powertrains (Sarathy et al, 2022) or fuels (Rosenfeld et al, 2019), and limiting aviation transition pathways to certain types of alternatives (Sacchi et al, 2023) Consequently, LCA practitioners face challenges in accurately assessing and comparing the environmental footprints of these emerging technologies taking a full life cycle perspective. Furthermore, while some LCI data can be found in the literature, the inconsistency and lack of transparency hinder reliable analysis and decision-making (Rupcic et al, 2023).…”

FACTOR ANALYSIS AND COST CALCULATION OF SOLAR ENERGY IMPLEMENTATION IN AVIATION MAINTENANCE, REPAIR & OVERHAUL (MRO)

“…Hu et al (2022) point to the necessity of performing more systematic studies on carbon emissions control in the aviation industry, taking into consideration MRO activities. Rupcic (2023) says that literature on the environmental effect of aircraft MRO activities is scarce. Literature reveals a paucity of tools or methods to evaluate sustainability in the aviation industry although other sectors, such as maritime and railways, have numerous applicable methods for sustainability problems (Fera M. et al, 2020).…”