CHAPTER 8

Future Research Needs

Although this report focuses on the applicability of CDR at airports, gaps related to the research could be studied in further detail, particularly as CDR pathways evolve. These include the following:

• Environmental and social impacts: Further analysis and evaluation of environmental and social impacts of various carbon-removal pathways is needed. While co-benefits and potential impacts are described in this guide, very few case studies at airports exist, and the information on the actual benefits and impacts is limited to research in small-scale pilot projects typically outside the airport environment. Future research surrounding the details of land-use changes, water use, wildlife or biodiversity impacts, ecosystem considerations, and impact on local communities would be useful.
• Monitoring, evaluation, and optimization: Paired with the environmental and social impacts, it is difficult to fully evaluate the benefits of CDR without monitoring and evaluation. Once CDR projects are conducted at more airports, it would likely be beneficial to conduct monitoring and evaluation of these techniques. Areas of focus could be on the amount of carbon captured versus planned, long-term co-benefits, tree growth rates, and overall effectiveness of the practices. Building on the monitoring, recommendations could then be made to optimize effectiveness and efficiency of the CDR pathways. This would focus on dialing in on the best CDR pathways for airports based on quantitative and qualitative information, as well as creating best management practices to find ways of improving performance of all pathways.
• Incentives: It would likely be helpful to evaluate how changes in some of the barriers described in this report, paired with incentives, could change the course of CDR pathways at airports. This would primarily focus on what would change in terms of CDR trajectories if a regulatory requirement for carbon were put into place.
• Integration with other climate mitigation: As stated in the introduction to this report, ACRP Project 02-100 focuses on carbon removal and does not address carbon capture and reuse. However, during this research, many pathways were brought up where carbon-removal technologies potentially could be paired with reuse pathways to create efficiencies. For example, research could look at whether DAC paired with SAF production would be a better use of funds than just DAC when looking at the whole system.
• Long-lived emissions: Legacy, or long-lived, emissions are the most challenging to remove from the atmosphere. It is difficult to offset legacy emissions due to concerns relating to infrastructure and social justice as well as a lack of sufficient alternatives. R&D into CDR technology will be critical in eliminating these more elusive emissions. Climate-mitigation efforts begin by tackling the low-hanging fruit (e.g., climate-mitigation techniques like transitioning to light-emitting diode lights), but there is a need for robust solutions to the challenges associated with legacy emissions. As some airports move toward net zero, future research is needed to understand aviation-related legacy emissions, and the opportunities for entities to

• contribute to removal efforts. A key part of this research will be finding socially equitable and just solutions during the removal process.
• Environmental justice: Social equity has a direct relationship to emissions and air quality. Studies show that low-income, historically disadvantaged, and red-lined communities are disproportionately affected by air pollution. Carbon-reduction efforts are not sufficient in increasing environmental justice, and there is a need for carbon-removal projects to successfully improve air quality. Many environmental justice communities have installed air-quality monitors to evidence the higher concentrations of CO₂ and other pollutants they experience. Further research is needed to reduce inequalities in air quality, especially in creating affordable, scalable technology that can remove these harmful emissions. Often, communities near airports are impacted by noise and air pollution. Future research studying the impacts of CDR on airport communities’ quality of life would enhance overall understanding of CDR and its relationship with environmental justice.
• Job creation: There is a need for future research on the relationship between carbon-removal projects and job creation. Gaining insight into the training, job type, and number of jobs will be a critical part of deploying CDR in the aviation sector.