Potential environmental impacts of the production of a representative state-of-the-art aircraft cabin structure

Kurzfassung

Fibre reinforced polymers (FRP) already play an important role in reducing the weight of aircraft and, as a result, limiting climate-impacting emissions. FRP are used both for aircraft primary structures and interiors. When analysing aviation environmental impacts with Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), the impact of the use phase currently far outweighs that of other phases in most LCA categories. However, aspects of manufacturing and solutions for potential circularity of components or materials are increasingly gaining importance. In this presentation, preliminary environmental hot spots of a cabin stowage structure representative component investigated in the German Federal Government’s funded project LuFo-VI CirKle* will be highlighted. The state-of-the-art component is a sandwich panel containing a honeycomb core made of aramid fibres and phenolic resin combined with glass fibre phenolic prepregs on both sides. As data collection in the Life Cycle Inventory (LCI) phase is a major challenge, corresponding data gaps and impacts of assumptions as well as proxy data on uncertainty of the results are discussed. The system boundary includes raw material extraction, their processing into the representative component and potential recycling activities. The assessment is carried out at component level, focussing on the production and end-of-life respectively recycling life cycle phases. Additionally, an extension to the aircraft and fleet level and use-phase is considered within the project. *Cirkle: ReCycling Werkstoffe für Flugzeug Kabinenbauteile; EN: Recycling materials for aircraft cabin components This work is carried out withing the LuFo VI-3 project CirKle (Recyclingprozesse und Bewertungsmethoden für kreislauffähige Kabinenmonumente, 20K2201D) funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWE).