Analysis of Emmissions Inventory for “single-engine Taxi-out” Operations

Stringent federal and state programs along with technology innovation have resulted in declining emissions from static sources (e.g. power plants) and are projected to meet national quality standards by 2025. The same cannot be said for mobile sources of emissions from flight operations at airports. In the absence changes in airport operations, the forecast rates of growth in flight operations will jeopardize State’s abilities to lower emissions to meet Federal standards. Recent studies indicate that 96% of flights in the U.S. accrue their delays at the airports and directly impact local nonattainment through emissions. This paper examines the sensitivity of emission factors (number of engines, engine efficiency and fleet mix, taxi-out time) through a case-study of departure operations at Orlando (MCO) and New YorkLaGuardia. Under the assumptions of a representative fleet mix, departure schedule, runway assignment, and taxi flows, “feasible single engine” taxi-out procedures reduced emissions (CO/NOx/SOx/HC) by 27% at MCO and 45% at LGA. To achieve the same level of emissions reduction requires a 25% decrease in taxi-out time at MCO, and 44% decrease at LGA. The implications of these results on optimization of surface operations to minimize emissions are discussed. Keywords-component; emissions, noise, surface optimization,single engine, taxi, fuel, pollution, environment.