Influence of Sustainable Aviation Fuels on the Formation of Contrails and Their Properties

Mafalda Narciso and João M. Melo de Sousa
Additional contact information
Mafalda Narciso: Instituto Superior Técnico, Av. Rovisco Pais, 1049-001 Lisboa, Portugal
João M. Melo de Sousa: IDMEC, Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade de Lisboa, Av. Rovisco Pais, 1049-001 Lisboa, Portugal

Energies, 2021, vol. 14, issue 17, 1-19

Abstract: Condensation trails and contrail cirrus are currently responsible for the largest contribution to radiative forcing in the aviation sector, yet they have lifetimes of only a few hours. Their much shorter lifetimes when compared to long-lived greenhouse gases makes them ideal for the implementation of short-term mitigation measures. The use of Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) instead of regular jet fuel has been associated to a reduction in soot particle emissions, leading to a decrease in initial ice crystal numbers in contrails, but also to a possible increase in contrail frequency and contrail ice mass due to higher water vapor emissions. A computational model was used to explore the influence of the variations of soot and water vapor emissions when using SAF and SAF blends in the formation of contrails, their ensuing optical depth, and their lifespan. An increase in frequency of contrails was found in cases where regular jet fuel emissions were close to threshold conditions. Reductions in contrail lifetime of up to 76% were found for contrails with lifetimes of over 30 min, while decreases in optical depth of up to 37% were found for contrails formed in air with a relative humidity of 42% or above. This work provides a better understanding of the potential of SAF as a mitigation measure against the impact of contrails on global warming.

Keywords: contrails; contrail cirrus; sustainable aviation fuel; soot; particle emissions; radiative forcing (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/14/17/5557/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/14/17/5557/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jeners:v:14:y:2021:i:17:p:5557-:d:629706

Access Statistics for this article

Energies is currently edited by Ms. Agatha Cao

More articles in Energies from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().