Munich Airport aims for cleaner skies

The airport is 18 months in to its Innovative Technologies project. It launched the project in July 2006, with the three-fold aim of reducing CO2 emissions, reducing energy costs and creating social benefits through the local sourcing of biofuels.

Strategy
Hermann Wolz of the environmental and regional policy office at the airport, explains that the strategy was to “try and broaden the biofuels user base at the airport through providing advice and information, offering subsidies and incentives and raising public and stakeholder awareness.”

He says that the timing was ideal to innovate with alternative fuel sources, given the favourable financial conditions for biofuels: high fossil fuel prices, tax subsidies for biogas until 2020, tax exemption for bioethanol until 2015, and tax incentives for canola (rapeseed) oil. Conditions which, if anything, apply even more today.

Infrastructure
One of the initial priorities of the project was to create the infrastructure at the airport to support greater biofuel use. Within six months, in January 2007, a non-public rapeseed fuel station was opened. This was followed in September by an E85 bioethanol fuel station. The next goal, says Wolz, is to open another biofuel station in spring 2008 that is accessible by the public.

Retrofitting
So far, 19 vehicles have been retrofitted to run on rapeseed oil. Another 64 run on R20 mix, which consists of 20% rapeseed oil. Further retrofitting of vehicles will be carried out until the end of 2009.

Says Wolz, “In the medium term, 400 out of 1400 vehicles will be converted from diesel to plant oil vehicles. Looking beyond that, it is our aim to substitute one third of the diesel used by the airport with rapeseed oil.”