On the fire and explosion risk profile of alternative fuels to kerosene in civil transportation aircrafts

Abstract : The booming industry of biofuels as well as the more general need to reduce environmental impact of fuels used for public transport have recently led to a number of initiatives focusing on the potential offered by biomass to develop alternative fuels to kerosene in aviation transport. As there is no parking place in the air, perfect operational safety and fire safety management in particular during flight is of course a paramount, as well as it is a requirement during taxiing on tarmac. However, preceding analysis of safety issues pertaining to biofuels2 learnt that there is a need to consider all aspects of safety on the full value chain by a life cycle analysis approach. Given that perspective, more than ever, safety challenges have to be identified as early as possible and integrated among sustainability criteria. This paper deals with a number of points that are important for safety, and in particular for fire and explosion safety management of developing alternative aviation fuels that may replace kerosene fuels. This work, in particular, integrates first results of INERIS contribution to the EU-funded project Alfa-bird (see: www.alfa-bird.eu ).