Potentials of bio-based fiber composites in aircraft structures: An environmental and economic analysis along the life cycle

Over the past decades, the aviation industry has seen a steady increase in air traffic, leading to a rise in harmful emissions. With predicted continued growth, aviation could become a leading emitter of pollutants in the future. To address this issue, the industry has implemented efficiency strategies, such as weight reduction in airframes, to reduce fossil kerosene consumption and limit emissions. Current developments focus on lightweight materials such as Carbon- and Glass Fiber Reinforced Plastics. Nevertheless, these artificial composites suffer from high production costs and negative environmental impacts, potentially causing problem shifts in the aircraft’s life cycle. Promising alternative materials are bio-based fiber composites. However, studies in this field are still lacking, particularly in integrating these materials into aircraft structural components. Therefore, the feasibility of integrating bio-based fiber composites to enhance sustainability in aircraft designs will be analyzed in this article. For this purpose, Life Cycle Assessment and Life Cycle Costing are carried out, and the results are compared with the impacts of current lightweight materials. Despite requiring higher material input, resulting in higher weights of the aircraft, using bio-based fiber composites in airframe production has partially shown a reduced impact in three out of the five investigated impact categories. Therefore, it can be a promising alternative in airframe production to increase sustainability.