14 DAY TRIAL // Only yesterday, leading aircraft manufacturer Airbus made it public news that it agreed to enter a partnership with China's Tsinghua University in order to help optimize and promote the use of biofuels in this country's aviation sector.
Apparently, the main drive behind this collaboration is the fact that China can presently take pride in having the best aviation market development rates in the world.
This means that having aviation biofuel intensely commercialized in this part of the world will most likely translate into a much-needed boost for the biofuel industry in general, not to mention the fact that considerable environmental benefits stand to be gained.
Speaking on behalf of Airbus, Frédéric Eychenne explained how, “We are privileged to be working with our Chinese partners to determine how best we can contribute to a sustainable aviation sector in China. The commercialisation of alternative fuels is one of the essential ingredients in our quest to achieving ambitious environmental targets in aviation.”
The official website for Airbus explains how this partnership can be broken down in two major phases. Thus, the aircraft manufacturer and the Tsinghua University will first work together on assessing the feedstocks China currently has available for use in developing aviation biofuels.
Naturally, the feedstocks identified in this stage of the project will have to abide by various environmental and sustainability standards.
Once this phase is completed, Airbus and said educational facility will focus on pinning down which of the solutions previously identified would yield the best of results in the context of the Chinese aviation sector.
According to the same source, a full sustainability report will be made available as early as the beginning of 2013, and from that moment on efforts will be made to produce biofuels on a sufficiently large scale so as to support their being commercially used.
As professor Zhang Xiliang from the Tsinghua University puts it, “The project will help us improve the understanding of the nature of aviation Biofuels commercialisation in China, identify the opportunities and challenges, and evaluate the possibility of social, economic, market and technology change and its cost, obstacles and challenges."
Furthermore, "We believe that the research will have positive effects on energy conservation, emissions reduction and climate change addressing in Chinese aviation sector.”