title: Impact of aviation non-CO₂ combustion effects on the environmental feasibility of alternative jet fuels.
abstract: Alternative fuels represent a potential option for reducing the climate impacts of the aviation sector. The climate impacts of alternatives fuel are traditionally considered as a ratio of life cycle greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to those of the displaced petroleum product; however, this ignores the climate impacts of the non-CO(2) combustion effects from aircraft in the upper atmosphere. The results of this study show that including non-CO(2) combustion emissions and effects in the life cycle of a Synthetic Paraffinic Kerosene (SPK) fuel can lead to a decrease in the relative merit of the SPK fuel relative to conventional jet fuel. For example, an SPK fuel option with zero life cycle GHG emissions would offer a 100% reduction in GHG emissions but only a 48% reduction in actual climate impact using a 100-year time window and the nominal climate modeling assumption set outlined herein. Therefore, climate change mitigation policies for aviation that rely exclusively on relative well-to-wake life cycle GHG emissions as a proxy for aviation climate impact may overestimate the benefit of alternative fuel use on the global climate system.
authors: Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA.
authors: Russell W
authors: RW
authors: Stratton
authors: Philip J
authors: PJ
authors: Wolfe
authors: James I
authors: JI
authors: Hileman
mesh_terms: D000397:Air Pollution / Q000517:prevention & control* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D001359:Aviation / Q000379:methods* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D003246:Conservation of Energy Resources / Q000379:methods*; D005579:Fossil Fuels; D001335:Vehicle Emissions / Q000032:analysis / Q000517:prevention & control*
chemical_list: D005579:Fossil Fuels; D001335:Vehicle Emissions