Session: 03-08 Sustainable Aviation Fuels

Paper Number: 128858

128858 - Integrated Performance Assessment and Decarbonising Potential for Aircraft Retrofitted With Sustainable Aviation Fuels 

In an effort to reduce emissions in aviation, engine and airframe manufactures are increasingly focusing their interest on alternative fuels. Hydrogen or ammonia are strongly addressed as long-term potential solutions, as their implementation is considered for new concepts or relies heavily on the redesign of existing aircraft. Sustainable Aviation Fuels (SAF) – which could be biofuels or synthetic fuels from sustainable feedstock – on the other hand, due to their similar properties with kerosene, can be a replacement in the near term and in some countries are already certified for partial use. This solution enables current and older generation aircraft to reduce their CO­₂­ footprint.

This study focuses on the latter and aims to demonstrate the performance characteristics of a single-engine aerobatic jet utilising different SAF blends with kerosene that are currently available in the United Kingdom. To achieve that an integrated framework was used that comprises of NASA’s Flight Optimization System (FLOPS) and PROOSIS simulation environment. FLOPS addresses the aircraft performance and is used due to its flexibility to assess complex mission trajectories for both civil and military applications. PROOSIS covers the performance estimation of the engine for all the examined fuels, accounting for the differences in calorific values as well as combustion product properties throughout the gas path.

A baseline high-manoeuvre mission profile with Jet A-1 is then established upon which all the examined SAF and their different blends ratios with Jet A-1 are compared against. It is observed that a reduction in fuel weight and in-flight CO_­2­ as well as NO­_X­ emissions of up to 2-3% can be achieved that is mostly attributed to the fuel calorific value ratio between the examined SAF and Jet A-1. Contrary to the fuel weight savings, fuel costs are predicted to increase relative to kerosene, as SAF production costs are currently higher. Finally, at engine level, the fuel burn reduction enables a slight decrease in turbine temperatures.

Presenting Author: Pavlos Rompokos Cranfield University

Presenting Author Biography: Pavlos Rompokos is a research fellow in the power and propulsion centre of Cranfield University School of Aerospace, Transport and Manufacture. He received an integrated master’s degree in mechanical engineering from National Technical University of Athens and an MSc and PhD in aerospace propulsion from Cranfield University. His current field of research is the implementation of hydrogen on propulsion systems for civil aviation and is contributing to the tasks of EU and ATI funded projects.

Authors:

Pavlos Rompokos Cranfield University
Sarath Sasi Cranfield University
Christos Mourouzidis Cranfield University
Ioannis Roumeliotis Cranfield University
Vassilios Pachidis Cranfield University
Michelle Akure BAE Systems PLC
Hannah Swindell BAE Systems PLC