Life Cycle Assessment of Turbofan Engines: A Reverse Engineering Approach

Abstract

As the environmental impact of the aviation industry becomes increasingly significant, there is a growing demand for detailed Life Cycle Assessments (LCAs) of aircraft components. Despite the evident necessity, comprehensive LCAs for turbofan engines remain relatively scarce. This is primarily due to the technical complexity of such engines and the lack of publicly available information on their detailed composition. The objective of this research paper is to present an LCA of an IAE V2500 engine, addressing its environmental footprint of its production. In order to determine the material composition and weight distribution for the LCA, a reverse engineering approach was employed. The resulting values were then employed in an LCA study. This included the extraction of raw materials and the manufacturing of the engine’s components. The findings of this study indicate that the production of a turbofan engine has a considerable environmental impact, emitting over 65,000 kg CO2 equivalents, with more than 61,000 kg CO2 equivalents attributed to the materials used. Furthermore, we propose a model-agnostic methodology that can be applied to other engine models, thereby ensuring adaptability and scalability.