Boeing seminar canvasses fuel & emissions issues

Boeing held its second Aero Environment Summit in Sydney yesterday, with an array of notable speakers, including Mary Armstrong, Boeing’s VP for Environment, Health & Safety.

“Our aim is to drive environmental thinking, environmental capability and environmental action into the very fabric of the way we operate the Boeing Company,” Armstrong said. “Aviation has a tremendous track record. Since the early jet age we’ve reduced our environmental CO2 footprint by 70 per cent; and of course that’s coupled with much greater fuel efficiency.

“We are also an incredibly important sector to the growth and health of the economy around the world. So we must find a way to continue to reduce our environmental impact, so that we can grow.

"Our approach at Boeing is to look at the life cycle of our products, so we are very focused… (on) our suppliers, our four-wall activities, the bigger picture of our products in use and finally how do we return those products as raw materials into the cycle of new products.”

Armstrong also made the point that nothing can be environmentally sustainable unless it is also economically sustainable.

Another eminent speaker, Qantas’ chief risk officer Rob Kella, detailed the potential minefield of emissions taxes facing an international airline, when he pointed out that a passenger travelling (say) from New York to Sydney via London, will be likely to face inbuilt costs related to several different ETS regimes.

And the airline will be faced with “different mechanisms, different approaches, (a challenge) for us as an industry to administrate. We thought managing ticket revenue through this process was challenging, but wait till we see what happens with this.”

Rolls-Royce’s local CEO, Andrew Dudgeon said that part of the problem the airline industry faces over environmental issues is of its own making:

“We have allowed, perhaps even encouraged, the public to see air travel as an everyday, run of the mill, even mundane activity. We seem to have mislaid the wonder of flying… in recent years the act of flying has been more frequently been associated with being an unnecessary and selfish act widely portrayed as a significant contributor of CO2 to the atmosphere.”

Air New Zealand’s Rob McDonald said that the fuel-saving measures the airline had implemented to date amounted to 34.8 million litres of fuel annually, or a saving of more than NZ$30 million each year.

“In the past four years alone we have implemented more than 40 projects which are having a positive environmental impact. We constantly balance long-term strategic positions like biofuels with everyday improvements.”

Boeing’s Billy Glover, managing director Environment Strategy, moderated a panel interaction with the floor to canvass a range of issues:

• It would be naïve to think that petroleum industry won’t play a significant role in the development of alternative fuels because of a conflict of interests. There are in fact already plenty of indications that they are engaged.

• The big issue is the availability of the volume of biomass that would be needed to replace even 10 per cent of Australia’s domestic needs. Where would it come from?

• There’s no clear direction yet in terms of feedstock for a biofuel – and researchers and industry are talking, not of a silver bullet, but rather of silver buckshot.

• But alternative fuels remain the big hope, because the incremental gains made by technological and operational initiatives right now provide at best between five and 10 per cent improvement in fuel and emissions savings.

• There is no consensus about just when alternative fuels will be in commercial use on a regular basis – or indeed in what quantities – though there are goals, such as five to 10 per cent by 2020.

• Some airlines are looking closely at ways in which they might enhance their “energy security” by teaming with an alternative fuel producer. This strategy is perhaps another form of hedging, but involves punting on the feasibility of an alternative rather than on the price of fossil fuel. However that balances out, it seems very likely that the cost of traditional fuels will be a major incentive to invest in alternatives, regardless of ETS mandates.

What became clear from this assemblage of experts is that the science is lagging the fervour when it comes to alternative aviation fuels. There is no clarity about the form a solution will take, or when it will happen. But it’s getting enough attention to be confident that there will be a solution, hopefully sooner rather than later.