Another airline has decided to give passengers the option to offset your carbon emissions when purchasing plane tickets. The latest carbon offset entrant is clickair, a low-cost company based in Barcelona, Spain. The story is that, due to Barcelona's airport placement between two lagoons and a protected area, the airline's carbon offsets take place close to El Prat de Llobregat airport, in a reserve by the Llobregat river.

Prices start at very acceptable levels (€ 3) and with low expectations: clickair expects to plant 250 trees through this program which will cover at least a little bit of the effects of its fleet of ten Airbus A320s.

[Source: Clickair]

Nope, this isn't a story about a plane flying exclusively on hydrogen. Instead, it's about Airbus' use of a fuel cell to obtain electricity for some of the plane's electrical needs: motor pump, back-up hydraulic circuit and operating the aircraft's ailerons. The cells produced a total of 10 liters of water.

The good thing, based on Airbus' claims, is that this might allow the aircraft to be lighter, because less fuel would be needed to carried for the on-board generators. The resulting product, plain water, could also be used in water systems, something that would also shave some weight.

Airbus plans to develop future applications for fuel cells, potentially replacing other aircraft systems such as the emergency power systems and the Auxiliary Power Unit. This could significantly reduce the noise and emission levels in and around airports

The fuel cell system developed by Airbus and Michelin was tested on the A320 test aircraft owned by the DLR, the German Aerospace Center. Airbus has been working on fuel cell technology in cooperation with Michelin, Liebherr Aerospace and DLR since the end of 2005.

Related:

• Airbus completes world first GTL-powered flight

[Source: Airbus]

The aircraft industry is feeling the heat when it comes to their emissions just as the automakers are. In an effort to reduce air travel's carbon footprint, Airbus is testing a new type of aircraft fuel called GTL, which is a liquid fuel made from natural gas. Natural gas emits the least amount of carbon of any fossil fuel, so the resulting liquid fuel is much greener than ordinary jet fuel. Research suggests that GTL can also be created synthetically using the Fischer-Tropsch process.

Airbus has successfully completed a flight using a blend of GTL and regular jet fuel. The flight, starting in the UK and ending in France, was successful and "will pave the way for approval of synthetic jet fuel in the future," according to Sjoerd Post, Vice President of Shell Aviation. Airbus President and CEO Tom Enders says that "It is part and parcel of Airbus' commitment to providing leadership as an eco-efficient enterprise". Here is a link to a video regarding the flight.

Considering that greenhouse gas emissions in Europe have increased 87 percent from 1990 to 2006, innovative solutions like GTL fuel will likely become increasingly important.

[Source: Airbus via Gizmag]