Volume 19: Sustainable Energy Solutions for a Post-COVID Recovery towards a Better Future: Part II

Carbon Emissions of Civil Airports in China Mainland and Primary Matching with Carbon Storage Sinks Liang Sun, Zhiyu Tian, Kai Li, Xiaohua Zhou

Abstract

Large airports generate enormous amount of CO2 due to frequent landings and takeoffs (LTOs) of airplanes and energy consumption. To advance carbon neutrality, the carbon emissions of airports need to be assessed. This paper evaluated the carbon emissions of airports and the contribution of airplanes in the LTO cycle in China Mainland in 2019 before the COVID-19 pandemic, and completed a simple distance matching analysis in the case of direct air carbon capture and sequestration (DACCS) application. It was found that the total CO2 emissions from airports in China Mainland in 2019 added up to about 153.52 million tons and the CO2 emissions from LTOs about 16.25 million tons. Approximately 90% of airports are within 5 km of the nearest sequestration sinks.

Keywords airport, carbon emission, Landing and takeoff (LTO), distance matching