Periodic Reporting for period 3 - CLAIRPORT (Clean Sky 2 - Airport Environmental Impact Assessments for Fixed-wing Aircraft)
Okres sprawozdawczy: 2020-10-01 do 2021-12-31
The aviation industry in Europe and worldwide has long recognised the challenge to accommodate air-traffic growth in a sustainable way. Building on the significant gains made in the first Clean Sky Programme (2008-2016), the Clean Sky 2 Programme aims to make a substantial contribution to the ACARE 2050 environmental goals by accelerating the introduction of new aircraft technology in the timeframe 2025-2035. More specifically, its objective is to develop cleaner air-transport technologies for earliest possible deployment, and in particular the integration, demonstration and validation of technologies capable of
- Increasing aircraft fuel efficiency, thus reducing CO2 emissions by 20 to 30% compared to ‘state-of-the-art’ aircraft entering into service as from 2014;
- Reducing aircraft NOx and noise emissions by 20 to 30% compared to ‘state-of-the-art’ aircraft entering into service as from 2014.
Clean Sky 2 technologies are clustered by Clean Sky 2 industry in coherent and mutually compatible solution sets, defining Clean Sky 2 concept aircraft. The Clean Sky 2 Technology Evaluator (TE) conducts assessments on these various concept aircraft at three complementary levels: aircraft, airport and air-transport system level. The objective of the Clean Sky 2 TE project CLAIRPORT (Clean Sky 2 – Airport Environmental Impact Assessments for Fixed-wing Aircraft) is to carry out the first Clean Sky 2 TE assessment at airport level, i.e. to evaluate the potential environmental benefits up to 2050 at airport level of aircraft technologies developed in the Clean Sky 2 Programme for fixed-wing aircraft.
For a representative set of European airports and for the year 2050, CLAIRPORT's assessments point to reductions of about 10-15% in surface area of Lden contours for relevant noise levels (60-65 dB(A)). For these noise levels, the noise results also highlight significant reductions in population exposed in the range of 10-25%. Further, in 2050, reductions of CO2 and NOx emissions amount to about 8-13.5% and 6.5-10%, respectively.
- Increasing aircraft fuel efficiency, thus reducing CO2 emissions by 20 to 30% compared to ‘state-of-the-art’ aircraft entering into service as from 2014;
- Reducing aircraft NOx and noise emissions by 20 to 30% compared to ‘state-of-the-art’ aircraft entering into service as from 2014.
Clean Sky 2 technologies are clustered by Clean Sky 2 industry in coherent and mutually compatible solution sets, defining Clean Sky 2 concept aircraft. The Clean Sky 2 Technology Evaluator (TE) conducts assessments on these various concept aircraft at three complementary levels: aircraft, airport and air-transport system level. The objective of the Clean Sky 2 TE project CLAIRPORT (Clean Sky 2 – Airport Environmental Impact Assessments for Fixed-wing Aircraft) is to carry out the first Clean Sky 2 TE assessment at airport level, i.e. to evaluate the potential environmental benefits up to 2050 at airport level of aircraft technologies developed in the Clean Sky 2 Programme for fixed-wing aircraft.
For a representative set of European airports and for the year 2050, CLAIRPORT's assessments point to reductions of about 10-15% in surface area of Lden contours for relevant noise levels (60-65 dB(A)). For these noise levels, the noise results also highlight significant reductions in population exposed in the range of 10-25%. Further, in 2050, reductions of CO2 and NOx emissions amount to about 8-13.5% and 6.5-10%, respectively.
For a given timeframe and airport, CLAIRPORT's basic assessment principle is to compare the environmental performance of two aircraft-traffic scenarios. The first scenario is a one-day flight schedule with Clean Sky 2 reference-technology aircraft in the relevant classes (long-range, short-/medium-range, and regional). The second scenario uses the same flight schedule, but in which (based on fleet replacement rates) Clean Sky 2 concept aircraft replace their reference-technology counterparts. The approach to quantify the environmental performance of an aircraft-traffic scenario consists of two steps. Firstly, a realistic simulation of aircraft traffic is conducted, yielding for each flight a complete trajectory in the airport’s local airspace. Secondly, the environmental contribution (in terms of noise, CO2 and NOx) is calculated per flight, based on its trajectory. These environmental contributions per flight are then aggregated to obtain the total environmental-impact results at airport level. These steps are elaborated below.
1. Airport selection
To conduct assessments for a representative set of European airports and a generic airport, CLAIRPORT developed an airport-selection scheme. The first step is a categorisation of airports. The second step is a set of criteria for selecting airports from every category in this categorisation. Based on this scheme, CLAIRPORT selected Amsterdam Airport Schiphol, Rome (Leonardo da Vinci –) Fiumicino Airport, Stockholm Arlanda Airport, Hamburg Airport and Toulouse Blagnac Airport, as well as the generic airport CAEPport.
2. Simulations and calculations
For each aircraft-traffic scenario, CLAIRPORT firstly conducts a realistic simulation of aircraft movements at and around the airport. The simulation output contains for every flight a complete trajectory in the airport’s local airspace respecting the real airport operational procedures and rules. These individual trajectories are subsequently processed by noise and emissions models to calculate the associated noise and emissions. Depending on the aircraft type, either a model from industry (for its reference-technology or Clean Sky 2 concept aircraft) or from Royal NLR (for other aircraft than reference-technology or Clean Sky 2 concept aircraft) is used. In the final step, the individual noise and emissions results are aggregated to yield noise and emissions output per aircraft-traffic scenario. Consistent with EU Directive 2002/49/EC and ICAO Doc 9889, this output includes:
- Lden and Lnight contours for significant noise levels: Surface area and population exposed;
- Total amount of CO2 and NOx emitted below 3,000 ft.
Capitalising on the framework from the earlier Clean Sky TE project (2008-2016) for assessments at airport level, CLAIRPORT developed an efficient and effective computation framework to carry out these simulations and calculations.
3 Assessments
CLAIRPORT carried out assessments up to 2050 for the selected airports in Step 1 in accordance with the process described in Step 2. These assessments show substantial improvements thanks to Clean Sky 2 technologies for fixed-wing aircraft. The reductions for 2050 in surface area of Lden contours for relevant noise levels (60-65 dB(A)) are about 10-15%, and for these noise levels, the reductions in population exposed are about 10-25%. In 2050, reductions of CO2 emissions amount to about 8-13.5% for the European airports considered, while the associated NOx reductions are in the range of 6.5-10.5%.
The assessment results are presented through various means, including the Clean Sky 2 TE publication 'First Global Assessment 2020' and presentations at various conferences.
1. Airport selection
To conduct assessments for a representative set of European airports and a generic airport, CLAIRPORT developed an airport-selection scheme. The first step is a categorisation of airports. The second step is a set of criteria for selecting airports from every category in this categorisation. Based on this scheme, CLAIRPORT selected Amsterdam Airport Schiphol, Rome (Leonardo da Vinci –) Fiumicino Airport, Stockholm Arlanda Airport, Hamburg Airport and Toulouse Blagnac Airport, as well as the generic airport CAEPport.
2. Simulations and calculations
For each aircraft-traffic scenario, CLAIRPORT firstly conducts a realistic simulation of aircraft movements at and around the airport. The simulation output contains for every flight a complete trajectory in the airport’s local airspace respecting the real airport operational procedures and rules. These individual trajectories are subsequently processed by noise and emissions models to calculate the associated noise and emissions. Depending on the aircraft type, either a model from industry (for its reference-technology or Clean Sky 2 concept aircraft) or from Royal NLR (for other aircraft than reference-technology or Clean Sky 2 concept aircraft) is used. In the final step, the individual noise and emissions results are aggregated to yield noise and emissions output per aircraft-traffic scenario. Consistent with EU Directive 2002/49/EC and ICAO Doc 9889, this output includes:
- Lden and Lnight contours for significant noise levels: Surface area and population exposed;
- Total amount of CO2 and NOx emitted below 3,000 ft.
Capitalising on the framework from the earlier Clean Sky TE project (2008-2016) for assessments at airport level, CLAIRPORT developed an efficient and effective computation framework to carry out these simulations and calculations.
3 Assessments
CLAIRPORT carried out assessments up to 2050 for the selected airports in Step 1 in accordance with the process described in Step 2. These assessments show substantial improvements thanks to Clean Sky 2 technologies for fixed-wing aircraft. The reductions for 2050 in surface area of Lden contours for relevant noise levels (60-65 dB(A)) are about 10-15%, and for these noise levels, the reductions in population exposed are about 10-25%. In 2050, reductions of CO2 emissions amount to about 8-13.5% for the European airports considered, while the associated NOx reductions are in the range of 6.5-10.5%.
The assessment results are presented through various means, including the Clean Sky 2 TE publication 'First Global Assessment 2020' and presentations at various conferences.
The main outcomes of CLAIRPORT are firstly the estimation of the environmental reductions (focusing on noise, CO2 and NOx) up to 2050 that can be achieved at airport level by Clean Sky 2 technologies for fixed-wing aircraft. Through these outcomes, CLAIRPORT expects to impact Clean Sky 2 TE (by complementing the other assessments), Clean Sky 2 JU and Clean Sky 2 Members (by monitoring Clean Sky 2 achievements), and EC (by assessing the level of success towards the ACARE Flightpath 2050 or other sustainability goals).
Next, CLAIRPORT developed a computation framework and an airport game. These outcomes are added to Royal NLR’s current research and advising capability. Herewith, Royal NLR enhances its capabilities for scenario analyses, and hence for researching and advising on (the impact of) new aircraft technologies, on different airport-traffic scenarios and on new alternative airport operations and procedures. Further, these outcomes will be enhanced in CLAIRPORT’s successor project GREENPORT2050 (Clean Sky 2 Technologies for Greener Airports by 2050), which will carry out the second and final airport-level assessment (with expanded scope) in Clean Sky 2 TE for fixed-wing aircraft.
Next, CLAIRPORT developed a computation framework and an airport game. These outcomes are added to Royal NLR’s current research and advising capability. Herewith, Royal NLR enhances its capabilities for scenario analyses, and hence for researching and advising on (the impact of) new aircraft technologies, on different airport-traffic scenarios and on new alternative airport operations and procedures. Further, these outcomes will be enhanced in CLAIRPORT’s successor project GREENPORT2050 (Clean Sky 2 Technologies for Greener Airports by 2050), which will carry out the second and final airport-level assessment (with expanded scope) in Clean Sky 2 TE for fixed-wing aircraft.