United Airlines to save on fuel and reduce carbon emissions

As part of the company’s ongoing efforts to conserve fuel and improve environmental performance, United Airlines has announced that it has signed a multi-year agreement with Pratt & Whitney for their patented environmentally friendly EcoPower engine wash system offered by Global Service Partners, a unit of Pratt & Whitney, a United Technologies Corp company.

United projects a 3 million gallon savings in jet fuel annually, reducing carbon dioxide emissions by approximately 28,000 metric tonnes.

“With unprecedented fuel costs, United continues to look for innovative solutions to save on jet fuel,” said Rick Wysong, vice president – Engineering, Materials and Planning. “In addition to saving fuel and improving engine performance, this system has the added benefit of being a faster, safer and more environmentally friendly way to clean our engines, enabling us to reduce our overall carbon dioxide emissions.”

United expects the washes to reduce fuel burn, eliminate hundreds of millions of pounds of carbon dioxide emissions and improve exhaust gas temperature margin, which will enhance engine performance.

“With regular washings, we expect United’s fleet and their customers’ engines to operate more efficiently, burn less fuel, stay on-wing longer, and cost less to maintain,” said Jim Keenan, senior vice president and general manager, Pratt & Whitney Global Service Partners.

United Airlines will implement the engine washes on all aircraft in its fleet by this fall and will begin offering the service to third-party customers. United will perform washes at several airports worldwide including San Francisco, Los Angeles and Washington.

EcoPower uses a closed-loop system with atomized water to wash aircraft engines, thus avoiding potential contaminant runoff. The patented system is more effective and much faster than traditional engine washing processes and extends time on-wing for operators of Pratt & Whitney, International Aero Engines, General Electric, Rolls-Royce and CFMI engines.