Larry Schneider, Boeing’s vice president for product development, says he expects the number of airplanes leaving the global fleet to nearly double in the next decade, up from the rate of close to 400 per year.
Speaking at the Aircraft Fleet Recycling Association (AFRA) Annual Meeting, in Seattle in June, the Boeing executive said accelerated fleet replacement would “rapidly increase the demand for aircraft dismantling and recycling services and introduce unique challenges to the sector.”
Accelerated fleet renewal is largely being driven by the higher fuel burn costs of older planes, Boeing says, which now make up some 60 percent of total operating costs, up from 30 percent of costs in the not-too-distant past.
According to AFRA, around 44 percent of the global fleet—around 13,000 airplanes—will be replaced in the next 20 years.
Schneider went on to say, “AFRA is leading the industry in the development of recycling technologies.” He noted that collaboration is the key in developing recycling processes and technologies if Boeing is to reach its stated aims of recycling 90 percent of airplanes by 2016. “Boeing looks for collaborative opportunities in the fields of dismantling and recycling; we look to work with the best people who have the capacity and the skills to accelerate the development of these technologies. It will take an enormous amount of collaboration when the rates of airplanes leaving the fleet are more than 400 a year,” continued Schneider.
The Boeing executive stressed that there is a need for technologies that reduce the full lifecycle costs of recycling in order to give a higher recycling value to aircraft, so owners and airlines will want to recycle. “There needs to be a greater economic incentive to recycle,” he said.
Schneider is keen to see more recycled materials go into both aviation and non-aviation applications. However, he added, “it is much more exciting if we can use recycled materials to design products that can go back into the aviation market.” Boeing has already made aircraft components from composites, such as small coach seat armrests, galley doors, air conditioning hoses and stow-bin hangers.
Martin Fraissignes, AFRA’s executive director, added, “There needs to be greater market demand for recycled material. Manufacturers have to design these material options into their products, and recyclers have to develop new technologies and produce the volumes that encourage the whole process.”
Boeing reported that its closed loop manufacturing system aims to deliver airplanes than can be reclaimed and recycled with less effort, placing more of a focus on the lifecycle value of the airplane.
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