Eco-Design ITD

Eco-Design is the implementation of a strategy for Design, Development, Manufacturing, Use and Recycling for an effective protection of the Environment

Clean Sky Eco-Design will minimise: consumption of non-renewable fossilised materials, emission of gaseous, liquid or solid effluents that could be a danger to the earth's atmosphere, soil, and water; impact of production means on operators (their physical and  psychological healt); and consumption of natural resources (water, minerals, etc.)

Clean Sky Eco-Design will maximise product recycling at the phasing out stage, and the use of renewable materials and energies.

Clean Sky Eco-Design must also maintain the technical performance of products as well as the economical performance of industries by reducing the number of industrial operations and reducing levels of waste and energy consumption.

Eco-Design will maintain (or increase) the competitiveness of the industry, keeping European aeronautics in a leading global position.

Eco-Design ITD is focused on the one hand on designing equipped airframe for decreasing inputs (raw materials, energy, water, etc.), outputs and nuisances (energy / warming, liquid effluents, gaseous effluents, solid waste, etc.) and, on the other, on eliminating non-renewable and noxious fluids and materials (i.e. removal of hydraulics) during operations and maintenance, without reducing aircrafts' levels of safety, quality and performance.

Eco-Design for Airframe

The Airframe Application of the Eco-Design ITD focuses on the complete life cycle of an aircraft, from early design and raw materials to the phasing out of the aircraft, through

• Optimal use of raw materials, a decreased consumption of non-renewable materials, natural resources and energy, and a lowered emission of noxious effluents;

• Avoidance of CMR* compounds and application of future regulations such as the REACH regulation;

• Green manufacturing and optimised production processes; and

• Recyclability, storage, elimination of aircraft after several decades of operation.

*CMR: Carcinogenic, Mutagenic, Repro-toxic

Eco-Design for Systems (for Small Aircraft)

The removal of hydraulics is the only way of making small aircraft evolve towards a completely all-electrical system. Innovative energy management architectures has to be investigated to provide the Systems ITD with the appropriate requirements.

Removal of hydraulic fluid: We expect removing hydraulic fluids will bring significant improvements to the environmental impact in terms of aircraft maintenance and disposal.

On board power-by-wire: On current aircraft, the vehicle systems architecture is based on a federated approach, and onboard power is generated and distributed though different media (electric, hydraulic, pneumatic). The use of electricity as the only media offers many possibilities in terms of energy management such as Intelligent load shedding, power regeneration on actuators, sharing of Electrical Control Unit over actuators, etc.

The on board power-by-wire concept is expected to show benefits in terms of greener power efficiency and subsequently in terms of fuel consumption. As a consequence, reduced CO2 and NOx emissions are also an expected result.

The primary objective of Eco-Design for small aircraft systems is to demonstrate the feasibility and highlight the “ecolonomic” benefits at aircraft level of “oil-less power-by-wire” for small cabin aircraft.