Browsing by Subject "Aviation"

Now showing 1 - 3 of 3
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    Assessing the Prospects for Minnesota-Produced Sustainable Aviation Fuel
    (2025-05-01) Anderson, Casidy; Anderson, Meghan; Lackens, Sophia
    The aviation sector contributes about 4% of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions (Ritchie, 2024). Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) remains the only viable option for meaningful decarbonization in the near term. Minnesota is uniquely positioned to produce SAF in-state because of its existing partnership with Delta Airlines through the Minnesota SAF Hub, its thriving agricultural industry, and its proven interest in investing in decarbonization. There are four relevant pathways to produce SAF in Minnesota: Hydroprocessed Esters and Fatty Acids (HEFA), Alcohol-to-Jet (AtJ), Gasification with Fischer-Tropsch Synthetic Paraffinic Kerosene (FT), and Power to Liquid (PtL). The agricultural pathways, HEFA, AtJ, and FT, are the most technologically mature. The carbon intensity score for each pathway varies heavily by the feedstock. Soy, winter oilseeds, fats, oils, and greases (FOG), corn, forestry residue, and agricultural residues are the primary feedstocks considered for Minnesota-made SAF. Additionally, each pathway will require hydrogen, water, and land use. Energy and infrastructure considerations remain a challenge to production and will require greater investment to create the fundamental resources necessary for producing SAF in the state. Funding also remains a barrier, as SAF currently costs 2 to 10 times more than traditional jet fuel and is not expected to reach price parity at scale. Policy change, especially related to permitting processes and tax incentives, will be necessary to support SAF production in the short and long term. This report identifies seven areas for recommendation: research and development, pathway prioritization, foundational investment, funding barriers assessments, water concerns, and sustainable economy promotion.
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    The Full Cost of Air Travel
    (Transportation Research Board, 1999) Gillen, David; Levinson, David M
    In this paper we review the theoretical and empirical literature on the cost structure of the provision of air transportation and specify and estimate our own cost functions. We develop a full cost model which identifies the key cost components and then we measure those costs component by component: user costs, carrier costs, infrastructure costs, time and congestion costs, noise costs, accident costs, and pollution costs. Applying the models to data for domestic air travel in the California Corridor, the total long run average cost is estimated to be $0.13 per passenger kilometer traveled. The single largest cost category is owning and operating a plane. In general, because of large fixed cost components, the average cost of infrastructure exceeds the marginal cost.
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    The social costs of intercity transportation: a review and comparison of air and highway
    (Taylor & Francis, Ltd, 1998) Levinson, David M; Gillen, David; Kanafani, Adib
    This paper provides a comprehensive survey of the literature on the measures of social costs, providing an indication of the state of engineering and economic literature. We operationalize the new thinking about which externalities seem appropriate to consider in an analysis of the transportation system. We construct measures of each externality: noise, air pollution, accidents, and congestion for the highway and air transportation modes, where possible as a function of the amount of output or use, rather than as simple unit costs. We find that noise is the dominant cost of air travel, followed by congestion, air pollution and accidents. For highway travel, accidents are the most significant cost, followed by congestion, noise, and air pollution. The social costs of highway travel are about 15 percent of the full cost of a highway trip, while the smaller social costs of air travel are only 5 percent of the full cost of an air trip. A highway trip generates four to five times as much externality as an air trip.