Energy Management and Alternative Fuels

Technical, Business and Policy Analysis Services
Proven techniques for defining alternative fuels goals and identifying strategy to achieve adoption

Metron Aviation has expertise in the technical, business and policy aspects of alternative fuels. Metron Aviation’s capabilities extend from the development of targets for alternative fuel adoption to assessment of implementation readiness at the airport level. Highlights of services and capabilities include:

Demand analysis and evaluation

Metron Aviation has modeling and simulation tools to help clients determine fuel burn and emissions from aircraft activity at multiple levels, for example from a single flight to whole days of operations in a national airspace. These tools can be used to determine projected fuel burn and emissions into the future taken into account changes in demand patterns, operational improvements and changes in aircraft technology.

Assessment of environmental impacts

Metron Aviation modeling and simulation tools can be used to calculate and assess environmental impacts in terms of lifecycle CO2 and local air quality emissions.

Define environmental targets and strategies

Metron Aviation has experience in the definition and evaluation of environmental targets with respect to fuel burn and emissions. Metron Aviation’s tools can be used to explore different policy options and “what-if ” scenarios to assess the impact and feasibility of strategies to achieve desired environmental goals.

Alternative fuels availability

Metron Aviation has the ability to assess the availability and environmental footprint characteristics of alternative fuels. Under the sponsorship of the FAA, Metron Aviation has partnered with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the Volpe Transportation Systems Center to develop an analytical tool to investigate the potential availability of alternative fuels.

Implementation feasibility

Metron Aviation has expertise in the analysis of technical, regulatory, environmental and business considerations for implementation of alternative fuel projects in the airport setting. This expertise is complemented with practical knowledge of airline jet fuel purchasing practices, airport fueling operations, and other fuel-related logistics.

Highlights of current alternative fuel projects

ACRP 02 18 “Guidelines for Integrating Alternative Jet Fuel into the
Airport Setting”:

The Airport Cooperative Research Program (ACRP) is part of the Transportation Research Board and the U.S. National Academies of Science. Metron Aviation is leading a team of experts in all technical, regulatory, and business aspects of alternative jet fuel to produce a handbook to facilitate the introduction of alternative fuels at airports. The handbook is intended to assist airport executives and other stakeholders along the supply chain of alternative fuels in the definition, evaluation, and implementation of alternative jet fuel projects.

ACRP 02 36 “Assessing Opportunities for Alternative Fuel DistributionPrograms”:

This is a follow-on to the ACRP 02 18 project in which Metron Aviation will continue leading a team of experts to develop a guidebook and toolkit to evaluate opportunities and constraints for implementing alternative fuels marketing and distribution programs. This project will also consider the co-products of alternative jet fuel production, such as renewable diesel, as key assets in the development of successful alternative fuel projects.

Environmental Target Analysis for Policy Support (ETAPS):

Metron Aviation is leading the ETAPS project under the sponsorship of the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). The goal of the project is to assist the FAA in evaluating environmental policy targets in view of current and future developments in air travel demand, aircraft technology, operational improvements and alternative fuels. An analytical tool to investigate the potential availability of alternative fuels is being developed as part of ETAPS.

System-level Environmental Analysis of Concepts and Technologies (SEACAT):

This NASA-sponsored project directly addresses the needs for NASA’s NextGen Concepts and Technologies Development Project for tools, methods and analysis to assess environmental impacts and constraints in the noise, emissions and fuel usage and efficiency domains. The potential benefits of alternative fuels to reduce the life-cycle GHG footprint of aviation activity are a key element in the evaluation of concepts and technologies in this effort.

Methods for Estimating Environmental Effects and Constraints on NextGen:

Metron Aviation is conducting an analysis of environmental impacts of NextGen scenarios for the Joint Planning Development Office (JPDO). The project takes into account developments in air travel demand, aircraft technology improvements, operational improvements and the impact of alternative fuels to evaluate the environmental effects of different NextGen operational protocols