New agreement to assess biomass for sustainable jet fuel signed

Aircraft manufacturer Airbus has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with ‘key Malaysian partners’ to assess local solutions for sustainable biomass production in the country.

The aim is to determine the most suitable feedstocks to ensure that any future jet fuel production in the region is based only on sustainable solutions. The first assessment is expected to be completed by December 2014.

Other partners include the Aerospace Malaysia Innovation Centre, the Malaysian Industry-Government Group for High technology, Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM), French research centre CIRAD and Malaysian biotechnology company BioTech.

‘We believe that the research will have positive effects on energy conservation and CO2 emissions reduction in the Malaysian and south-east Asia aviation sector,’ says Mohd Fauzi Hj Ramlan, vice chancellor of UPM.

‘According to our latest global market forecast, Asia-Pacific will lead in world traffic by 2032,’ adds Frédéric Eychenne, Airbus new energies programme manager. ‘This agreement is part of our engagement to support traffic growth while reducing aviation’s footprint on the environment.’