Trials have been conducted at Australia's Adelaide Airport in conjunction with state-owned utility SA Water. The results have shown that planting lucerne around runways can drop air temperatures by more than 3°c on warm days and therefore improve the performance of departing air planes.
This is a world-first project which is expected to generate strong interest from numerous airports in hot regions, especially those with busy long-haul schedules through the heat of the day.
In warmer, less dense air, planes must travel faster down the runway to produce the lift needed for take-off. When a runway lacks the distance required to reach these speeds, a plane’s weight must be reduced by removing passengers, luggage and cargo. This reduces profit for the airline.
There is also a threshold temperature above which some smaller domestic aircraft simply cannot take-off.
SA Water environmental opportunities manager Greg Ingleton, who developed the Adelaide Airport concept, will present the findings to more than 1000 delegates at the Airports Council International’s Airport Exchange, one of the aviation industry’s peak annual conferences.
He said the aim of the presentation was to further raise awareness about the Adelaide trial and generate interest in other locations.
“The main aim is to present the facts and figures to the airport stakeholders from around the world and to potentially raise the opportunity to explore the implementation at other airports with us,” Ingleton said.
“One of the interesting things to come back from the recent aircraft performance analysis was because Adelaide doesn’t have a busy schedule in the heat of the afternoon, particularly for international flights, the benefit is modest compared to what it could be at other airports where it is a bit hotter and they’ve got a busier schedule during those peak periods particularly for those larger long-haul planes.
“We’re also investigating the ability to create carbon credits from growing the crops, demonstrating carbon sequestration whereby the plants absorb CO2 and use it as fuel for growth by locking it in the soil.”