1475. Fleet Emission Reduction Through Optimized Introduction of Electric Aircraft
Invited abstract in session MC-58: Electric Vehicles, stream Vehicle Routing and Logistics.
Monday, 12:30-14:00Room: Liberty 1.13
Authors (first author is the speaker)
| 1. | Finn Vehlhaber
|
| Mechanical Engineering, Eindhoven University of Technology | |
| 2. | Mauro Salazar
|
| Mechanical Engineering, Eindhoven University of Technology |
Abstract
Numerous manufacturers around the world have announced electric aircraft models to be released in the upcoming decade and several commuter airlines have signed letters of intent to buy some of these initially small planes to integrate them into their daily operations. These aircraft will replace conventional commuter planes and reduce fleet emissions, but the typical pace for phasing them in is rather slow. Still, with adapted fleet assignment schemes that take the type of propulsion into account, significant reductions may be obtained, even for small proportions of electric aircraft in the fleet.
In our paper we propose an adapted fleet assignment problem that considers availability of charging infrastructure at the served airports, as well as flight characteristics, to optimally assign the share of electric aircraft in the fleet to flights in order to minimize the fleet emissions. The framework includes battery constraints to ensure routes to be feasible, and enables partial recharging depending on local conditions and flight requirements.
We apply our framework to the flight schedule of a commuter airline that operates around 250 daily flights and analyze different boundary conditions for existence of charging infrastructure and number of electric planes in the fleet. Results show that already a small share of electric aircraft can make a large difference in fleet emissions and the infrastructure plays a large role in facilitating these savings.
Keywords
- Airline Applications
- Sustainable Development
Status: accepted
Back to the list of papers