Aerospace Chief: Industry on Track to Deliver ‘Greener’ Aircraft
(EurActiv.com) Industry is on track to ensure “carbon-neutral growth” in the aviation sector from 2020, but strengthened European Union support for research and development (R&D) is vital to help manufacturers deliver the green technologies required, François Gayet, secretary-general of the AeroSpace and Defence Industries Association of Europe (ASD), told EurActiv in an interview.
François Gayet is secretary-general of the AeroSpace and Defence Industries Association of Europe (ASD). He also currently chairs the International Coordinating Council of Aerospace Industries Associations (ICCAIA).
…”Put simply: anytime a plane saves weight, it saves fuel as well. If, on top of that, the efficiency of the engines or the airplane itself is improved, you save even more fuel.
Secondly, it is clear that the development of the future generation of biofuels could help a lot. In our jargon we call them ‘drop-in biofuels’, because you can mix them with traditional kerosene and put them inside the same tanks, which avoids building a new infrastructure for the alternative fuel.
…I expect the first biofuels to be certified in 2012 or later. The most promising biofuel crops are jatropha and camelina, but there is also a huge potential for producing biofuels from algae. However, here again, massive investments are required to bring the fuels out of laboratories and showcase that their production can be scaled up from some laboratory litres to millions of litres and distributed around the world to each airport and airplane.
…We are talking about the same type of investments needed to build new oil refineries.Aircraft manufacturers have a very limited role to play in that portfolio. They have done their job through testing and demonstrating that the fuels work and can be used for flying.” READ MORE
