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DemonsTrating lower pollUting soLutions for sustaInable airPorts acrosS Europe

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - TULIPS (DemonsTrating lower pollUting soLutions for sustaInable airPorts acrosS Europe)

Okres sprawozdawczy: 2022-01-01 do 2023-06-30

TULIPS (DemonsTrating lower pollUting soLutions for sustaInable airPorts acrosS Europe) is a project that will demonstrate innovations that facilitate the transition to low-carbon mobility and enhance sustainability at airports. As part of the European Green Deal and European Climate Law, this project aims to contribute to the EU's goal of becoming a climate-neutral continent by 2050 and the urgent need to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and promote sustainability in the EU, with a focus on the aviation sector.

The overall objective of TULIPS is to achieve lower or net-zero emissions at airports by utilising sustainable energy production, greener transport modes, and other measures. It aims to reduce the carbon footprint of airports and improve local air quality. The project aligns with several UN Sustainable Development Goals, emphasising its commitment to environmental objectives.

The project brings together 31 partners across Europe and an external advisory board to accelerate the implementation of innovative and sustainable technologies at airports. The project is supported by the EC with €25 million in funding.

Execution of TULIPS will take place in seven demonstrator work packages, assessed and supported by several teams organised in four supporting work packages, all aimed to reach the set targets and build a European roadmap towards 2030 and 2050 objectives. In total 17 demonstrations will be tested at the lighthouse Amsterdam Airport Schiphol and assessed at fellow airports Oslo, Turin and Larnaca, showcasing innovative technologies, measuring their benefits to society and environmental impacts. Successful demonstrations will be included in the EU roadmaps for the set 2030 and 2050 long term targets across airports of different sizes.

The specific TULIPS objectives include improving multi-modal travel to reduce traffic congestion, enhancing airside electrical infrastructure for electric and hydrogen-powered aircraft, implementing smart energy solutions for managing airport operations, and integrating hydrogen fuel cell technology for zero-emission ground support equipment.

Furthermore, the project strives to promote the use of Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF), establish a fuel certification clearing house, and implement circular economy practices at airports. Additionally, TULIPS seeks to standardise approaches for measuring ultrafine particle (UFP) emissions and optimise land carbon sequestration.
In the first period (January 2022 - June 2023) all work packages to gain the specific targets and demonstrations have been started successfully. Also, the required tasks to organise assessments and facilitate TULIPS on performance monitoring, deployment and implementation, project management and communication & dissemination have started and provide useful guidance and support to the demonstrator work packages.

In the first period, nine public reports have been published on various topics.
- Feasibility of hydrogen and electricity demand at various airports has been analysed for hub and regional airports, including safety aspects;
- A demonstration plan and operational concept for the hydrogen propulsion of heavy GSE equipment has been published. Prototypes of a hydrogen-powered Ground Power Unit (GPU) and tow tractor will be developed and demonstrated;
- A replicable framework for successful Power-to-Liquid (PtL) projects in EU regions has been delivered. Regions are compared on the success factors and boundary conditions to develop and exploit a successful PtL production facility;
- Between all involved airports in TULIPS a comparative airport circularity study has been performed. It provides a baseline of 2019 operational resource streams of participating airports, through performing environmental impact assessments, and ranking priority operational resource streams;
- The first insights on the circularity performance management system have been published with key performance indicators (KPIs) related to the quantity, quality, and composition of operational waste streams;
- A set of market and technology readiness criteria are identified for the deployment of demonstrations including the safety regulations. This publication includes an information package for safety and certification of the proposed solutions during the upscaling process, ensuring compliance with relevant regulations and standards;
- To design the outline for the EU roadmap, a specification of the current roadmap for the lighthouse airport has been published. The existing roadmap for the lighthouse airport is specified towards the 2030 and 2050 targets on zero waste and zero emissions;
- Finally, two reports have been published with the initial and updated communication and dissemination plan. It contains the set strategy and an overview of the various events (conferences, workshops, seminars, fairs, webinars, etc.) and regular tracking of planned and past activities.
An assessment of the expected results will follow Wave 1 of the demonstrators and will be reported in the next Reporting period.

Currently we are working on the overall assessment methodology to enable providing information on the expected results. This will be illustrated by the prepared internal report on the Wave 1 results.
image 1 - Overview Schiphol - lighthouse airport
image 2 - Overview TULIPS Work packages and targets