Semantron 23 Summer 2023

Aviation and fossil fuels

Matt Gladwell

Introduction

The two largest aircraft manufacturers, Airbus and Boeing, have long fought to create the most fuel- efficient commercial airliner. This higher efficiency allows the airline to save on fuel per passenger and ultimately charge less per ticket. Regardless of this fuel-efficiency, modern aircraft are little different from their 20 th -century predecessors. While the effort to drive down the rate that fossil-fuel is burnt is commendable, the aviation industry still burnt 918 million metric tons in 2019 (Graver, Rutherford and Zheng, 2020). Despite a decrease in emissions per passenger due to this improved fuel-efficiency, the overall emissions went up by 29% between 2013 and 2019 due to the growth of the aviation sector as a whole (Graver, Rutherford and Zheng, 2020).

Left: The number of air passengers globally each year in billions. This shows an increase of nearly 300% between

1990 and 2019. Light Blue – Total

Dark Blue – Domestic Green – International

International Civil Aviation Organization (2020). ICAO Economic Impact Analysis of COVID-19 on Civil Aviation.

Comparing this with the automotive industry, we can see a huge disparity. Car manufacturers have switched from hybrid and now to all-electric technology. Despite the obvious difference in complexity of the two industries, it nonetheless seems that almost nothing is being done within aviation. The emissions from which still account for 2% of global emissions (Ceurstemont, 2020). So, why does this disparity exist? With increasing fuel prices and an unprecedented consciousness of climate change, surely now is the time to begin these same changes in the aviation industry. This essay aims to explain why aviation has seemingly been left behind as other modes of transport adopt electric power and to lay out the ongoing research into moving aviation away from kerosene.

Why can commercial aircraft not use electric power?

Put shortly, energy density. Energy density is the term used for fuel sources referring to the amount of energy we can extract from that source per kilogram. The problem is that hydrocarbons like petrol and kerosene offer a much higher energy density than even the best batteries we have. With kerosene

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