ANA／Airlines' Initiatives for the SDGs|ANA

August 4, 2021

On April 26, 2021, the ANA Group announced a goal to reduce CO2 emissions from airplanes to virtually zero by 2050. Most of the CO2 emitted by the ANA Group is from airplanes; therefore, how to reduce this is a major issue for us.

How much fuel does an airplane need to fly?

An airplane uses an engine attached to its wings to burn jet fuel which generate forward force (thrust), and the force that lifts the wings (lift) to fly in the sky.
Approximately 90 tons of fuel is required when flying from Tokyo to London. The amount of CO2 emitted when consuming this jet fuel is about 280 tons. It is said that CO2 per ton is equivalent to the amount of 25m swimming pool, so it means that CO2 for about 280 of 25m swimming pools are emitted when flying from Tokyo to London.

How to consume less fuel

There are several ways to consume less fuel, one of which is to use an airplane equipped with a new engine that produces greater thrust with less fuel. The ANA Group is actively introducing such airplanes, but just as any engine, as it get used, dust and dirt adhere to the compressor (a place to compress air for efficient combustion) inside the engine. From this, the amount of fuel required to produce thrust, in other words the amount of CO2 emitted, will gradually increase.
By cleaning this dirt and dust by "water wash" (washing inside of the engine with water), it is possible to reduce the amount of fuel required for flights and reduce CO2 emissions.

How do you perform engine water wash?

We interviewed a mechanic, a tool manager, and an engineer about the details of water wash!

Interviewing the mechanic who performs water wash! What is "water wash"?

Interviewing the tool manager! Details of tool management for water wash!

Interviewing the engineer who is working on the further evolution of water wash! Story behind the introduction of water wash!

How much CO2 can be reduced by "water wash"?

Water wash can reduce the amount of jet fuel consumed by about 1%. It seems very little but, when flying from Tokyo to London, it usually consumes about 90 tons of jet fuel, so 1% of that is about 900 kg.
As a result, about 2.8 tons of CO2 emissions can be reduced, which is equivalent to the amount of CO2 for about 3 of 25m swimming pools.