Energy System Transformation in Aviation

Project Description

The growing air transport demand is presenting airlines, aircraft manufacturers, and airports with enormous challenges. A low-emission growth requires significant reductions of CO₂-, NO_x-, and noise-emissions. At the same time, a reduction of the use of fossil fuels and thus a transformation towards a circular energy system is necessary. Similar challenges are currently addressed for ground traffic where electric mobility is seen as the most promising option regarding the required modernisation. However, the high power and energy density demand of aviation prevents a direct transfer of technologies that are currently developed and applied to cut down CO₂ emissions in the ground traffic sector. In addition to new concepts for energy storage and conversion, a significant improvement of the energy efficiency of aircraft is required. To this end, completely new aircraft designs and concepts have to be investigated. The wide spread of requirements from short- and long-range aircraft requires mission-specific solutions. That is, while eletric aircraft can be a promosing option for short-range aircraft with lower power and energy density demands new enrgy systems such as fuel cells or synthetic fuels have to be investigated for long-range aircraft to enable a transformation of the air transport system towards sustainability and energy efficiency.

For this purpose, the interdisciplinary research project Energy System Transformation in Aviation was established. It aims at reducing CO₂- and NO_x-emissions, decreasing noise pollution, and deeloping circular energy systems for the aviation sector. Moreover, the development of an adjusted air transportation management is an important objective of the project.

Project Data

• Duration: From 2016 to 2018
• Funding: Ministry for Science and Culture of Lower Saxony
• Contact: Christoph Müller

Project Partners

• Technische Universität Braunschweig
  • Institute of Automotive Management and Industrial Production
  • Institute of Jet Propulsion and Turbomachinery
  • Institute of Fluid Mechanics
  • Institute of Aircraft Design and Lightweight Structures
  • Institute of Flight Guidance
  • Institute for Engineering Design
• Leibniz Universität Hannover
  • Institute of Electric Power Systems
  • Institute of Turbomachinery and Fluid Dynamics
• Hochschule für Bildende Künste
  • Institute of Transportation Design
• German Aerospace Center
• National Metrology Institute
• Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft

Initial Situation and Problem

The mid- and long term global framework for aviation is given by growth expectation (growth rates of 3-5% per annum) driven by the megatrend of mobility in combination with the challenge of a reduced environmental footprint in general and a reduced climate impact in particular. This includes also non-uniform growth of emerging and developing countries as well as individual segments within air transport. While the nominal contribution of aviation to the global CO₂ emissions is in the order of 2%, the increase of the global warming potential due to release in sensitive atmospheric areas can be estimate by a factor of 2-3. Due to increasing scarcity of fossil fuels as well as the interest of society, industry, and policy to reduce CO₂ emissions from aviation, a wide range of technological, political, and organizational measures are explored and implemented to achieve the emission reduction targets that are formulated by different organizations. The Flightpath 2050 of the European Union, for instance, requires that CO₂ emissions from aviation are cut by 75% compared to 2000 levels despite the growing air transport demand. A transformation of the whole air transport system is required to achieve these targets.

Objective and Approach

The basic idea of all research executed in the frame of the project is the need of transition regarding the whole air transport system. This means that not only technical changes concerning aircraft technology, but also changes of infrastructure and traffic management are crucial points to consider for a transition towards low-emission air transport. Therefore, the project not only concentrates on aspects exclusively related to aviation technology, but also includes socio- and techno-economic studies into its research.

In order to pave the way towards low-emission air traffic, the project aims at an integration of future air transportation into a circular energy system economy. Regarding this, especially different aspects of long, medium and short range missions and the maintenance of performance of transport aircraft play an important role. Thus, fundamental research mainly concentrates on these topics. Also the study of synthetic fuels as a possible alternative to fossil fuels forms a central research topic. Concerning this, attention has to be paid to high costs on one hand and the time it takes to develop aircraft equipped with technologies suitable for utilizing synthetic fuels on the other. Thus, long-term usability of aircraft is a further aim to meet with respect to the project's overall objective. Picking up on that, life cycle analysis of future transport aircraft constitutes a further important research field.

A central task of the project is the generation of interdisciplinary evaluation methods for air transport systems, situated in the midst of a proliferating energy transition. These methods are to be constantly revised, developed and complemented, thereby equally considering socio- and techno-economic methods. Technological considerations are also supplemented by design-scientific theories.

Further Information

Please refer to the page of the Aeronautics Reserach Centre Lower Saxony (NFL) for further information about this research project.