The Green Journey

Aviation and the environment

Posted by JLow on May 30, 2010

Recently we were selected and invited by the US State Department’s International Visitor Leadership Program, to participate in their Aviation and the Impact on the Environment theme.

They have designed a range of new engines called PurePower, which saves fuel by being lighter, more fuel efficient, quieter, and cleaner emissions.

More details to follow; just wanted to share some of the photos from our visit to Pratt and Whitney the engine manufacturer; as one of the people and places on the program’s agenda.

Volcanoes, ash, and grounded planes.

Posted by JLow on Apr 20, 2010

This has been all over the news; how passengers are stranded unable to travel or return home, how airlines are badly affected by cancelled flights, and refunds, or redirecting passengers to alternate destinations.

What about the effect on the environment?

Late last week I saw a comment left by a reader on a news article about the volcano, citing that grounding planes would therefore have an indirect benefit to the environment because of there would be no carbon emissions into the atmosphere. Immediately I thought “What about the plumes?”

I did some research which I am sharing below. The source is wikipedia.

With the massive reduction of air travel occurring over European skies, an estimated 1.3 million tonnes of carbon dioxide, more than the annual emissions of many developing countries, has been saved from entering the atmosphere as a result of the cancelled flights across Europe; however, no calculations have yet taken into account the massive amount of carbon dioxide released by the volcanic ash cloud itself. [119]

Residents of West London under the Heathrow Airport flight path have described the peace as ‘bliss’. John Stewart of the Heathrow Association for the Control of Aircraft Noise said they had been inundated with emails and phone calls and said “The message is that this is what life should be like. The peace and quiet is absolutely wonderful.” Christine Shilling, of the No Third Runway Action Group, who lives in nearby Harmondsworth, said: “I’ve lived here more than 40 years and I’ve never known such peace.”[120] Jenny Tonge, president of HACAN Clearskies, life peer and former Liberal Democrat MP for Richmond Park in London said “Dare we hope that it will finally lay the Third Runway at Heathrow to rest and concentrate government minds on more environmentally friendly and sustainable forms of transport?”[121][122]

No doubt there has been a reduction or temporary cessation of emissions (until flights are allowed into that airspace again), but the plumes from the eruption may actually be quite damaging as well, in more ways than one.

When ash begins to fall during daylight hours, the sky turns hazy and a pale yellow color. The ashfall may become so dense that daylight turns the sky gray to pitch black, with the ash severely restricting visibility and deadening sound. A darkened ash sky lowers temperatures during daylight hours from what would otherwise be expected. Loud thunder and lightning as well as the strong smell of sulfur accompany an ashfall.[11] If rain accompanies an ashfall, the tiny particles turn into a slurry of slippery mud. Rain and lightning combined with ash can lead to power outages, breakdowns of communication, and disorientation.[12]

Very fine ash particles can remain high in the atmosphere for many years, spread around the world by high-altitude winds. This suspended material contributes to spectacular sunsets, as well as an optical phenomenon known as “Bishop’s Ring“, which refers to a corona or halo effect around the sun.[13] High levels of ash high in the atmosphere causes climate change by cooling the globe for a few years following major eruptions. The last episode of ash-induced global cooling followed the Mount Pinatubo eruption of 1991.[14] The most documented case in recorded history of this phenomenon followed the epic eruption of Mount Tambora in 1815, which led to the year without summer in 1816.[15]

Hong Kong sunset c. 1992 after the eruption of Mount Pinatubo

Rainbow and volcanic ash with sulfur dioxide emissions from Halema`uma`u vent

Volcanic ash dunes near Tarvurvur Crater, Rabaul caldera

River eroding volcanic ash flow Alaska Southwest, Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes

Undoubtedly, the airline industry does have a part in overall emissions. But by last official statistics, airlines only contribute 2-3% of the overall emissions, when we take into consideration industries like power generation (coal plants), transport industry such as trucking, etc.

You may also be interested in reading “Air travel disruption after the 2010 Eyjafjallajökull eruption”

John Low
MAS Environment Dept

Efficiency has always been a factor

Posted by JLow on Oct 14, 2009

One of the idiosyncrasies of the aviation sector is efficiency.

Optimisation is the key factor in planning for an airline’s network: where to fly to, which planes to use, how often, and even what time of day to leave and/or arrive. And then there’s the aspect of “distressed inventory”- seats “expire” when the flight takes off. If a seat on that flight is not sold, it is a loss to the company because it can never be sold ever again. So, marketing efforts ultimately are to fill up the seats before the date and time of the scheduled departure.

With fuel being the one biggest cost in an airline’s operations, airlines are also looking into ways to reduce fuel use. Minimising the turnaround time (quickly get the plane flying again after landing), finding the best flight path to the destination, finding the best approach when landing (gradual descend while approaching instead of “braking” to slow down approach). Airplane manufacturers have also been making advances in both airplane technologies and engines to reduce fuel burn during flights.

Having an understanding of these characteristics of the aviation industry, it is a real challenge to balance the need to be environmentally conscious and responsible, whilst trying to “survive” as an airline in these difficult economic times and increased competition.

This article reproduced below updates the recently decided direction for the aviation sector in terms of carbon emission limits for the coming years.

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Airline chief warns governments not to squander opportunity for a global sectoral solution for aviation

Posted by JLow on Oct 8, 2009

This week saw the Greener Skies 2009 conference being held in Hong Kong, where airlines came together to discuss the ways forward for the aviation industry in tackling climate change and policies on carbon emissions.

General sentiment is that while on the surface it appears logical that respective nations’ governments should be imposing their own policies on carbon emissions, since the nature and operations of the aviation sector is cross-border, requiring individual airline companies to comply with respective carbon policies of the countries to which they fly creates a whole myriad of complexities in terms of regulations, taxes, and maybe even carbon prices.

Below is the reproduction of a recent article update on the conference from GreenAirOnline. It summarises the united front of the sector in preparation of the Copenhagen summit in Dec 2009, calling for the global policy makers to consider a holistic single approach for the aviation industry, instead of leaving it to individual nations and their respective, and potentially differing, policies for a global sector such as the aviation sector.

John Low
Malaysia Airlines

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