Aviation biofuels research on Chinese feedstocks continues

France-based aircraft manufacturer Airbus has worked with a Chinese university to complete a sustainability analysis report on converting feedstocks, including cooking oil, into sustainable aviation fuel.

Airbus, with researchers from the Tsinghua University, hope the project will show how to support the development of a value chain to speed up aviation biofuel commercialisation.

‘The commercialisation of alternative fuels is one of the essential ingredients in our quest to achieving ambitious environmental targets in aviation,’ says Airbus New Energies programme manager Frederic Eychenne.

Algae is another feedstock being analysed and a full report should be ready by the start of 2013.

‘The project will help us improve the understanding of the nature of aviation biofuels commercialisation in China, identify opportunities and challenges, and evaluate the possibility of social, economic, market and technology change and its cost, obstacles and challenges,’ adds project manager and director of the Institute of Energy, Environment and Economy at Tsinghua University, professor Zhang Xiliang.