Influence of Sustainable Aviation Fuels on the Formation of Contrails and Their Properties
Open accessAbstract
Condensation trails and contrail cirrus are currently responsible for the largest contribution to radiative forcing in the aviation sector, yet they have lifetimes of only a few hours. Their much shorter lifetimes when compared to long-lived greenhouse gases makes them ideal for the implementation of short-term mitigation measures. The use of Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) instead of regular jet fuel has been associated to a reduction in soot particle emissions, leading to a decrease in initial ice crystal numbers in contrails, but also to a possible increase in contrail frequency and contrail ice mass due to higher water vapor emissions. A computational model was used to explore the influence of the variations of soot and water vapor emissions when using SAF and SAF blends in the formation of contrails, their ensuing optical depth, and their lifespan. An increase in frequency of contrails was found in cases where regular jet fuel emissions were close to threshold conditions. Reductions in contrail lifetime of up to 76% were found for contrails with lifetimes of over 30 min, while decreases in optical depth of up to 37% were found for contrails formed in air with a relative humidity of 42% or above. This work provides a better understanding of the potential of SAF as a mitigation measure against the impact of contrails on global warming.
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SAF can lower emissions of soot, sulfur oxides, and ultrafine particles, and mitigate the climate impact of contrails.
“while also lowering emissions of other pollutants, such as soot [30], sulfur oxides, and ultrafine particles [31], as well as mitigating the climate impact of contrails [32].”
From Use of sustainable fuels in aviation: a review (2022) · cites this paper as [32]
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- Authors
- Narciso, M., & de Sousa, J. M. M.
- Affiliations
- Instituto Superior Técnico (PT)
- IDMEC, Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade de Lisboa, Av. Rovisco Pais, 1049-001 Lisboa, Portugal
- Venue
- Energies
- Publisher
- MDPI AG
- Published
- 2021-09-06
- Volume
- 14
- Issue
- 17
- Pages
- 5557
- ISSN
- 1996-1073 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W3198849165
- Cited by
- 26
- References
- 21
- Citations by year
- 2026: 6 · 2025: 5 · 2024: 6 · 2023: 6 · 2022: 2 · 2021: 1
- FWCI
- 1.54
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Energies (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Funders
- Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (UIDB/50022/2020)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Global and Planetary Change › Advanced Aircraft Design and Technologies
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Global and Planetary Change › Atmospheric aerosols and clouds
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Environmental Engineering › Maritime Transport Emissions and Efficiency
- Keywords
- sustainable aviation fuel, contrails, contrail cirrus, soot emissions, water vapor emission, optical depth, relative humidity, aviation climate impact, radiative forcing
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