Emission Impacts from Sustainable Aviation Fuel Blends via Engine Plume Measurements and Predictive Modeling at the Airport Scale

Sustainable aviation fuels (SAFs) are receiving increasingly high attention by science, industry, and politics as they are considered an effective tool to reduce the impact of aviation on the climate system and air quality. While numerous experimental studies on the effects of SAFs were performed, these are often limited to specific test scenarios or engine measurements. This work combines predictions based on the DLR SimFuel platform with field data from the first campaign to investigate a 34% hydrotreated esters and fatty acids (HEFA) SAF blend under real-world operating conditions during regular passenger flights. For this purpose, an Airbus A320-251N flying between Copenhagen and Arlanda was fueled with conventional Jet A-1 for 30 flights during 1 week and with a 34% HEFA SAF blend for 85 flights in 2 weeks. The corresponding exhaust gas plumes during taxiing were analyzed by the DLR mobile lab. Equipped with state-of-the-art instruments, this analysis contains total and non-volatile particle number concentrations and size distribution, gas analytics (CO₂ and NO _<i>x</i> ), and weather parameters. The results confirm the beneficial effects of SAF usage toward the air quality by reducing total particle emissions by about 10% and non-volatile particle emissions by about 40%. Also, this data set obtained under real-world conditions provides a valuable basis for model development and validation.