Boeing, UOP and Mexico’s Airports and Auxiliary Services agency (ASA), which is an arm of the Mexican government’s Ministry of Communications and Transport, have announced a collaboration to identify, research and further the development of a commercially viable market for Mexico-sourced sustainable aviation biofuels.
“This is a first-of-its-kind collaboration, involving key government, private sector and academic leaders,” said Darrin Morgan, director of biofuel strategy for Boeing Commercial Airplanes. “Working together, we are assessing the potential for large scale production of aviation fuels made from sustainable biomass systems such as halophytes, algae, jatropha, castor and other so-called next generation biomass-for-energy systems.”
ASA is responsible for fuel management and aircraft refuelling operations in Mexico, and is expected to bring a focus on the fuel supply chain to the existing partnerships between Boeing and UOP.
Together, the three parties are expected to focus their energies on producing biofuels from Halophytic plants, which thrive in arid land and can be irrigated with seawater waste streams from aquaculture. As such halophytes may be suitable for biofuels development in arid ecosystems with little competing land use potential.
