To achieve the objective of carbon neutrality by 2050 and a 45% reduction in CO2 emissions from all domestic flights and departing from the EU by 2030, aviation stakeholders will have to put around the table.
Thierry Breton, the European Commissioner announced at the Paris Air Forum organized by the Tribune, the creation of an “Alliance for zero emission aviation”.
This alliance, which should see the light of day at the end of 2021, aims to bring together all the players in the future clean aircraft ecosystem. The idea is to identify all barriers very early on, make recommendations on how to overcome them and promote the necessary investments. “The Commission will put money, the Member States as well, as the companies. It's a public-private partnership, ”explained Thierry Breton.
"The aircraft of tomorrow and its competitiveness will be judged on its climate impact", explained Thierry Breton, adding: "This is a unique opportunity for the European aeronautics industry to establish a decisive competitive advantage of" first mover "on the world market.
"Several avenues are discussed with innovations and breakthrough technologies or" sustainable "fuels.
But also by playing the next move with electric or hydrogen propulsion planes.
Hydrogen in the crosshairs
Several projects are already in the pipeline. Airbus and Safran will be testing a “green aircraft” this year without a drop of kerosene. An A320 should use 100% alternative fuel. All kerosene will be a sustainable alternative fuel engineered from biomass. Today, regulations require that they be mixed up to 50% with kerosene. This project, called Volcan, aims to verify “the compatibility of these alternative fuels with all aircraft systems” and to verify CO2 emissions. For its part, Boeing has already promised oil-free fuels by 2030.
The project was funded as part of the aeronautics recovery plan which provides 1.5 billion euros over three years for research on carbon-free aircraft.
The objective of the manufacturers is to be able to put into service by 2030 aircraft compatible with these fuels.
But the airline industry also wants to bet on hydrogen, which would make it possible to have zero-emission planes.
Air Liquide, Airbus and Groupe ADP announced on Monday that they had signed a memorandum of understanding to prepare for the arrival of hydrogen in airports in 2035.
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This partnership concerns the realization of engineering studies, with a view to creating the necessary infrastructures to accommodate the new aircraft, in particular to supply them with liquid hydrogen. The three partner groups "intend to combine their respective expertise to support the decarbonisation of air transport and define the concrete needs and opportunities that hydrogen brings to the aeronautics sector", with the objective of "contributing to the emergence of a French innovative and strategic sector for carbon-free global aviation. "
Initially, a study involving a representative panel of around thirty airports in the world “will make it possible to determine the different configurations of development and supply of liquid hydrogen. This will allow us to scald several scenarios and define the required infrastructures. At the end of May, eleven projects aiming to develop an airport hydrogen sector in Ile-de-France, ranging from its storage to the refueling of future “zero emission” planes, had been selected following a call for demonstrations. interest, with the objective of “first on-site experiments from 2023”.