General Electric has joined Virgin Australia and a number of other industry partners in efforts to develop a sustainable aviation biofuel.
Following on from Virgin’s decision to join the initiative in July, GE will also partner with the Renewable Oil Corporation (ROC), Dynamotive Energy Systems Corporation (DYMTF) and the Future Farm Industries Co-operative Research Centre (FFI CRC) to experiment with the use of fast pyrolysis technology developed by DYMTF to farm and process a eucalypt tree as a source of biofuel.
The consortium is currently finalising plans for an operational demonstration unit by 2012, intended to utilise biofuels for testing, certification and public trials.