ECO Efficiency

Bio-Based Material

Bio Based Materials are materials that are made from substances derived from living organisms for example plants. We want to increase the use of Bio Based Material, to decrease the use of virgin materials and with this decrease the use of fossil resources.

Recyclable Material

To decrease resource use in production, we constantly optimize our processes to reduce waste and offcuts.

Recyclable Material

When considering the end of life of our products, we want to apply design principles and materials, that enable an increased recycling rate. One Example for this or mono-material components, e.g. made from thermoplastics, that could be shredded and re-used in a second molding process to produce a new product.

VOC Reduction

To improve health and safety standards for our production staff even further, we minimize the use of materials and processes, that emit volatile organic compounds in production or over the life time of our products. For example, most of the paints we use are water based, and therefore VOC free.

Weight Saving

One major lever how our products can contribute to a reduction in carbon emission is lightweight design. By developing increasingly lighter products, whether through new materials and technologies or completely new approaches in system architectures, we want to generate a positive impact on aircraft weight and thus fuel burn.

CO₂ Saving

For a given weight saving we estimate a CO₂ saving with the following simplified calculation: With the Specific Fuel Consumption (SFC), aerodynamic performance, given by Lift-over-Drag (LoD), Aircraft weight and annual flight hours we can approximate the annual fuel burn of a given aircraft type.

Fuel = weight / LoD * SFC * Flight Hours

With this we estimate the fuel saving through an aircraft weight saving.

This fuel saving can be converted to CO₂ saving using the chemical principles of combustion:

Burning 1 tonne of aviation fuel produces 3,16 tons of CO₂

 

EXAMPLE CO₂2 SAVING DUE TO WEIGHT SAVING AT POWDER COATING

Weight saving: With a 30 % smaller surface weight of powder coating compared to décor foil, approx. 3,8 kg (8,4lbs) can be saved for sidewall panels per single aisle shipset.

This weight saving can be translated in to a CO₂ saving as follows: With some basic flight physics considerations regarding unaccelerated level flight and generally available aircraft data like specific fuel consumption we can estimate the fuel consumption in relation to the aircraft weight: Fuel = weight / LoD * SFC * Flight Hours

For a current large single aisle aircraft (e.g. A321NEO or Boeing 737-9) and a yearly utilization of 3600 flight hours, the weight saving generated with powder coating for sidewalls will translate into a fuel saving of 500kg per year per aircraft.

The conversion of fuel consumption into CO₂ emission is based on chemical formulas considering the combustion: 1 tonne (t) fuel = 3,16 tons CO₂

Due to this weight reduction we can save an estimated 1,6 tons (t) CO₂ per aircraft annually.

Energy Saving

For our equipments we identified another lever to contribute to eco efficient flight. That is power consumption. As electrical power needs to be generated at the aircraft engines or APU, reducing the power consumption can contribute to reduced fuel burn and ultimately reducing carbon emission. Reducing power consumption for our equipments also has the side effect of reduced thermal energy. This is an enabler for optimized cooling designs, that will lead to additional weight savings.

Water Saving

Especially with our water-waste systems and lavatories we identified water saving innovations as another beneficial measure to generate a weight saving for the aircraft. For example with optimized water consumption to flush toilets, operators can reduce the amount of water that is needed for the flight, thus reducing the aircraft take off weight. Considering that water is a scarce resource, this has the side effect that water consumption itself can be reduced as well.