Green power: Investing in airfreight sustainability

Growing pressure to decarbonize the aviation industry has led to significant investment in sustainability during the past year. From Virgin Atlantic’s successful commercial transatlantic flight this week using 100% sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) to Japan’s investment in electric aircraft systems , industry leaders are investigating every pathway that could lead to net zero by 2050. [caption id="attachment_57139307" align="aligncenter" width="515"] A Virgin Atlantic Boeing 787 is fueled with sustainable aviation fuel. (Courtesy/Virgin Atlantic)[/caption] In addition to SAF, widely thought to be the most efficient way to decarbonize aviation, hydrogen , solar power and non-carbon effects of aviation are being increasingly explored for this purpose. Each offers the possibility for a sustainable future. Hydrogen technologies Hydrogen, in theory, is the perfect solution to reducing aviation carbon emissions, which produce roughly 2% of global emissions, according to IATA. This is because hydrogen’s only by-product is water; it also has all of the benefits of SAF without the challenges, such as low feedstock and high cost. Hydrogen has been researched and tested as rocket fuel since 1945, according to NASA . Even after decades of research, however, hydrogen is still in its infancy in many ways, Richard “Pat” Anderson , professor of aerospace engineering and the director of the Eagle Flight Research Center at Embry‑Riddle Aeronautical University , told Air Cargo Next . While hydrogen works well in electric vehicles, the technology to use it as fuel for commercial-sized aircraft does not exist, Anderson said. “There’s two ways of using hydrogen on an airplane,” he said. “You can actually burn it in an engine, similar to the way they do it with regular gas, or you can run it through a fuel cell and make electricity and run on the electric motor. … Regardless, you need lots of hydrogen.” [caption id="attachment_57138531" align="aligncenter" width="712"] NOVAdev Inc's EF-5C freighter. (Photo/NOVAdev)[/caption] Hydrogen is an energetic fuel, which has high energy density, so it can store more energy in the same amount of fuel than a fuel with low energy density. “It’s three times more energetic than regular liquid aviation fuel, so that’s good, Anderson said. “The bad news is that it’s a gas and so you either have to store it in gaseous form in incredibly high-pressure tanks, which adds a lot of weight, or you have to store it as a cryogenic, which is a liquid that is at very low temperatures [and] has all the problems associated with very, very low temperature.” Storing large amounts of hydrogen, which is very reactive, is quite dangerous, he added. Despite this, investments into hydrogen fuel cells and electric aircraft systems are on the rise. This year: The U.S. Air Force invested $235 million into electric aircraft with startup Long Beach, Calif.-based JetZero ; Huntington Beach, Calif.-based startup Novadev designed a freighter intended to be fully functional with hydrogen-fueled turbine engines; European drone developer Dronamics signed an agreement with British-based Cranfield Aerospace Solutions for hydrogen fuel cell propulsion systems to retrofit its Black Swan long-range cargo drone; Dutch and German aerospace pilots recently flew a ceremonial all-electric flight from Maastricht Aachen Airport (MST) to Aachen Merzbruck Airport (AAH); and Burlington, Vt.-based Beta Technologies partnered with the U.S. Department of Defense on the ALIA electric aircraft, which made 20 stops across 2,000 miles in the United States before landing at Eglin Air Force Base in Florida, where studies continue. It is more cost-effective to pursue SAF — though it is pricy — as large-scale aircraft infrastructure can accommodate SAF, and new planes would be needed for hydrogen power, Anderson said. Not every industry leader agrees. Novadev founder and Chief Executive Michael Kramer built a company based on creating new infrastructure. Founded in 2018, Novadev designed a zero-carbon aircraft powered by hydrogen-fueled turbine generators that look like traditional propeller engines. The company’s aircraft is at least a decade away from a prototype, Kramer said. “One of the reasons why we’re looking at air cargo is that, if you want to change the technology — and the technology we’re talking about changing is to go from a conventional jet-fueled airplane to hydrogen airplane — you’re going to sack that airplane,” Kramer previously told Air Cargo Next . Solar power Myron Keehn , president and chief executive of Edmonton International Airport (YEG) , which is a leader in both hydrogen technology and solar power, said this year that YEG aims to reach net zero by 2040, a decade earlier than the industry goal. After partnering with IATA’s Environmental Assessment Program in 2022, YEG became the first airport to set its own sustainability guidelines, Air Cargo Next reported in March. Since then, the airport has planned Airport City Solar, a 627-acre, 120-megawatt solar farm, which will offset 106,000 tonnes of CO2 with 340,000 solar panels producing 200,000 megawatts of power annually. YEG has invested $1.5 billion into its Airport Sustainability Campus over the past decade, Air Cargo Next previously reported. [caption id="attachment_94786" align="alignleft" width="405"] Airport terminal and runway birds-eye view facing west. Photo/Edmonton International Airport[/caption] “Airports need to be ready for the evolution of energy,” Keehn told Air Cargo Next at the time. “Here at YEG, we are Canada’s largest airport by land area. We are committed to using our vast space to develop the infrastructure to accommodate new fuel regimes and bridge the future of a net-zero aviation industry.” Solar power is a simple, effective tool. It captures energy from the sun, which is converted into electricity or heat, according to the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD). In addition to greenhouse gases emitted by aircraft, there are carbon effects from localized air and noise pollution surrounding airports, the IISD reported. Solar power can help create more cost-efficient and sustainable airport systems, despite some economic challenges, according to the IISD. “Although many airports have invested in solar power installations, this isn’t yet accepted as an industrywide norm,” according to a report by the IISD. “This may, in part, be due to some of the challenges surrounding their application. One of the biggest challenges is the up-front cost of solar panels. Although panels have dropped in price considerably in recent years, with large energy needs, the majority of airports would have to make a significant investment in solar panels in order to be 100% powered by solar.” Operators that have looked to solar power to reduce carbon footprints include: Ceva Logistics , which in October opened a 135,000-square-foot warehouse in Los Angeles that includes parcel-sorting robots from Boston Dynamics and rooftop solar panels; DHL Global Forwarding , which opened a $6.8 million pharma facility in Johannesburg in September 2022, complete with solar power roofing; and DHL Express , which plans to open a $105 million warehouse in Munich in 2024 that will include a 100-kilowatt peak solar power system and 34 charging stations — 32 for electric vehicles and two for apron vehicles. "Recognizing that there is no 'silver bullet' that will address the emissions challenge across all areas of the supply chain, DHL is pioneering different alternative fuels and energy sources, including both solar and hydrogen," DHL spokesperson Daniel McGrath told Air Cargo Next. "We have made significant investments in solar energy to power aspects of our warehousing and hub operations. For example, the DHL Express Atlanta Hub, which opened in July, generates up to 50% of its on-site energy consumption through 65,000-square foot of rooftop solar panels." Non-carbon aviation effects Contrail-avoidance case studies have recently been linked to sustainability in aviation, with technology advancements helping industry operators better monitor weather patterns, Andrew Chen , principal for decarbonization in aviation at the nonprofit Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI), told Air Cargo Next. “[Contrails] are linear clouds made from the exhausts of aircraft engines at a high altitude,” Chen said. “They are of such attention and importance because, when you create that contrail at altitude, it has climate warming and cooling effects.” A case study conducted this year by Google , American Airlines and Breakthrough Energy showed that contrails potentially account for 57 % to 60% of overall carbons trapped in the air by thousands of flights per day. An aircraft could avoid contrails by using a weather-prediction tool to fly above or below certain altitudes during peak contrail-forming atmospheric conditions, Chen said. [caption id="attachment_57137772" align="alignright" width="466"] (Photo: CanStock/tanaonte)[/caption] “But overall, the general consensus and immediate estimate is that contrails on their own may [contribute 60% or more of] what we measure for the carbon dioxide that comes from aviation today,” he said. Contrail avoidance does not decrease carbons that are emitted from an aircraft; however, it can decrease the warming effects of contrails left in the air, Chen said. “While contrail avoidance removes a large warming impact in the near term, aviation carbon dioxide emissions still contribute upwards of 2% of anthropogenic climate change,” Marc Shapiro , director of Breakthrough Energy’s contrails team, previously told Air Cargo Next. “Contrail avoidance does not remove the need to decarbonize aviation via sustainable aviation fuels and other technology development.” While it may seem like an insignificant and time-consuming practice to implement contrail avoidance into a flight plan, it could pay off in the long term, Joey Cathcart , an RMI carbon-free team member who was a passenger on Virgin’s 100% SAF flight, told Air Cargo Next . “One of the primary tools that is available to the industry to date to avoid contrail impacts are contrail prediction models that can be integrated into flight-planning systems to help air carriers reroute flights and avoid areas of forecasted contrail regions,” Cathcart said. “By rerouting those flights, they can avoid the potential warming effects that they may incur otherwise.” Join Air Cargo Next for the free webinar, “The future of AI in air cargo,” on Tuesday, Dec. 5, at 11 a.m. ET. More information about the webinar and registration is available here .

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