SBIR Phase I: Aviation Carbon Emissions Calculator for Commercial Air Travel and Cargo

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project will accelerate the aviation industry’s adoption of more efficient aircraft and sustainable fuel sources. This project proposes a carbon calculator algorithm to effectively calculate scientifically valid and accurate carbon emissions for the consumer travel and air cargo markets.

This research will lead to the first publicly accessible data on flight carbon emissions for air cargo and air travel as a point of booking decision support tool. This will enable travelers to make flight decisions based on carbon emissions and sustainability, as they do price and schedule. Airlines can use this for important flight operations decisions in support of their sustainability goals. This can be applied to other modes of transportation.

This research will lead to the development of a predictive per-passenger carbon emissions algorithm to be used as a decision support tool before booking a flight. Research and development of this type have never been done for air travel carbon emissions, and currently, no external certification and verification system exists for aviation carbon emissions.

Econometrics modeling and principal component analysis will be used to develop and train a predictive carbon emission algorithm, after which software engineering will be used to develop an Application Programming Interface product to link this with consumer behavior and travel decisions. One inherent technical risk for this project is the ability to obtain and maintain consistent access to accurate, curated data describing aircraft and flights.

The ability to process such a vast amount of data from disparate sources in real-time, with the required speed and accuracy, is another major challenge.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.