Boeing, Embraer And Sao Paulo Research Foundation To Guide
Renewable Fuel Research
Boeing, Embraer, and the Sao Paulo State Research Foundation
(FAPESP) have announced plans to collaborate on long-term aviation
biofuels-related research and development, a move that represents
another major step toward the creation of a sustainable aviation
biofuels industry in Brazil. Azul, GOL, TAM and Trip airlines will
be strategic advisors in the program.
As a result of an agreement signed Wednesday, Boeing, Embraer
and FAPESP are leading the development of a detailed report
outlining the unique opportunities and challenges of creating a
cost-effective, bio-derived, and sustainable jet-fuel production
and distribution industry in Brazil. When completed in late 2012,
the report, which will include a technology and sustainability
roadmap, will be made public.
The study will be guided by a series of public workshops during
2012 with input from a wide range of stakeholders, as well as a
strategic advisory board, which will give the project wide-ranging
guidance and institutional support. Members will include airlines,
fuel producers and suppliers, environmental experts, community
groups, and government agencies.
The study will frame the creation of a sustainable aviation
biofuels research center in Brazil. This center will be jointly
funded by FAPESP and industry in order to drive a long-term
research agenda for the development of aviation biofuels technology
in Brazil. A special call for proposals by FAPESP to establish this
center is expected to follow the initial study phase. The mission
of the center will be to close the technical, commercial, and
sustainability gaps needed to enable the creation of this new
aviation fuel supply chain in Brazil.
"The partnership with Boeing and Embraer brings a new level of
FAPESP efforts to foster research partnerships between universities
and companies in Sao Paulo," said Suely Vilela, member of FAPESP's
board of directors. "The research center will be created through
public selection, according to FAPESP's Research, Innovation and
Diffusion Centers, which aim to establish long-term advanced core
research that results in innovation."
"Brazil already has shown global leadership in developing
biofuels for ground transportation," said Donna Hrinak, president
of Boeing Brazil. "Bringing together people from throughout Brazil
who possess the leadership and expertise to create new, low-carbon
energy sources for aviation is the right thing to do for our
industry, for our customers, for Brazil, and for future
generations."
"Embraer is proud of the role it has always played in the growth
of Brazil's technological knowledge base and making our country
ever more attractive, not only as a market but also as an
innovation platform," said Mauro Kern, Embraer's executive vice
president, Engineering and Technology. "Biofuel development has
long been a focus of ours in other partnerships, and this new
program will add substance to those efforts, especially because of
FAPESP's participation."
Boeing and Embraer are focused on creating sustainable aviation
biofuels produced from renewable resources that do not drive food
competition in vulnerable regions by competing with land and water
resources. Both companies are bringing together agricultural
interests, academic researchers, environmental experts, refiners
and aerospace companies around the globe to establish local
infrastructure needed to develop a sustainable and economically
viable biofuels industry.
In 2008, FAPESP announced a broad research program in bioenergy
(BIOEN), through which the foundation supports more than 300
biomass and biofuels production scientists from Brazil and 11 other
countries, as well as students and post-doctoral researchers.
Since 2008, flight tests conducted by airlines and military
operators show that biofuels perform as well as or better than
kerosene-based jet fuel.
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