Dassault Systèmes – new hope for the decarbonization of flying

Decarbonization of aviation has slowly become the new goal of the industry, as climate change is currently a massive global challenge for the future of our planet. Net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 is what the sector targets. However, according to David Ziegler, Vice President, Aerospace and Defense at Dassault Systèmes, the problem has also been tackled in the past.

“I think it's long been a primary goal of the aviation industry to decarbonize itself. Maybe not in these words, but actually since the 1950/60s. Each generation of new aircraft engines are in the range of 20% fuel emissions reduction on the passenger maintenance body. It's not a new topic”, Ziegler commented.

Moreover, the corporation he represents is also trying to make this goal a reality.

“We've been partnering with major aerospace companies to contribute to the projects of clean aviation, making sure that government funds will come into direct research for decarbonizing aviation. We've been partnering as well with government funding research entities to contribute to that decarbonization. But also, we are working with a lot of small and medium companies and start-ups that are vibrant projects in that community.”

“It's going take a long time. While the full aviation industry is committed to becoming carbon neutral by 2050, the technology isn't quite ready yet. But if we look at some milestones, we can expect the first cabin for flights with electrical, vertical take-off and landing aircraft, that's short-range segments, in the 2024-2025 time-frame.

“If we look a bit further ahead in the future, I think that by 2035, that's been declared as the ambition by Airbus to have the first flight of a carbon-neutral aircraft based on hydrogen technology. So, these will target the regional market - the 1,000 nautical mile range”, Ziegler explained.

Yet, with the Covid-19 pandemic considerably hitting the industry and reducing operations capacity, the strategy had to be reconsidered in order to become sustainable, as companies need to reduce investments after the pandemic-related crisis.

“What we're seeing now is actually a pick-up trend where essentially the airlines are buying much more fuel-efficient aircraft and therefore are contributing to reducing carbon emissions. Some of the examples are the recent announcements by Airbus and Boeing of large purchases of new aircraft which are burning less fuel than the previous generations. So, in essence, while there was not a crazy amount of investment during the pandemic, the orders that are coming now are going to massively reduce the carbon footprints”, the vice-president continued.

Nevertheless, Dassault Systèmes work was not halted during the pandemic, so as declared, the corporation focused at helping companies become sustainable and “developed a specific solution to evaluate the total footprint of greenhouse gas emissions from the design stage of the product.”

This means that the major players in the industry can now test hydrogen fuel, sustainable aviation fuel (SAFs) and electric aircraft technologies with the help of digitalization. All for better results, as far as fuels, planes and services are concerned.

“Airlines will need to change their operations, change the maintenance of their aircraft. This is a massive technological change that needs addressing. And this is why creating it in a virtual space, what we call a virtual twin, allows all the aircraft designers and manufacturers to design their product from design to operations on a single platform in the virtual world, enabling all the stakeholders to collaborate on that platform. That's what we call essentially the power of the virtual twin”, Ziegler said.

According to Dassault Systèmes, the next 10 years will be crucial for technological developments in the field. However, electric air planes dedicated for commercial flights might become available even sooner.

“If we're talking about small aircraft, city to city or cities to airport, the first flights are already happening in the test phase, and probably commercial activities will start around 2025. The big bet right now is whether that's going to take off and we'll see a completely new industry.

“If we're talking about regional aircraft, we've seen a lot of prototypes flying on hybrid aircraft propulsion technologies. Whether that technology is ready yet to come into the market, I would say my best guess would be 2028/2029…For larger aircraft, I would like to see that in my lifetime. But that's going to be more in the range of 2040”, Ziegler added.

Dassault Systèmes has been recently included in the Financial Times’ 2022 Europe's Climate Leaders list, as the French corporation promotes prized values, connected to high sustainability standards, innovation and eco-friendly businesses.

 

source: aerotime.aero