The iPort Project: Energy Concept Calculations

Abstract

The aviation industry, accountable for 3% of worlds GHG-emissions in 2013, is a fast growing industry (+/- 5% per year). The emitted GHG-emissions in this industry are not only emitted during flight but also during flight preparations, also referred as aircraft handling. The iPort, a rotating building at which aircrafts are handled, is a new aircraft handling concept designed to be more energy efficient in aircraft handling than current concepts. However, no solid calculations were made to support this assumption. This thesis presents an assessment of the energy use of aircraft handling at an iPort-concourse versus the energy use of aircraft handling at a traditional concept, represented by the C-concourse at Schiphol Airport Amsterdam. A material and energy flow analysis was used to quantify the energy use per case. The differences were analyzed through a comparative case study analysis. The energy use per turnaround at an iPort-concourse and at the C-concourse was calculated at 2,1GJ and 5,1GJ respectively. The related GHG-emissions were calculated at 224kg CO2 per turnaround and 304kg CO2 per turnaround for respectively the iPort-concourse and the C-concourse. This implies that the iPort-concourse has the potential to reduce the required energy demand per turnaround with 3,0GJ and the potential to reduce the related CO2 emissions with 80kg per turnaround. This resulted in a potential reduction of 216TJ per year with a related reduction of 5.760 ton of CO2 emissions per year when multiplied with the, case-study related, amount of turnarounds in 2013 (72.007).