An artist's impression of Masdar City, the new sustainable research community being created to focus research entirely on renewable energy solutions.
Credit: Masdar
ABU DHABI: Can tomorrow’s aircraft be powered entirely from biofuels grown from saltwater plants? That’s what a large new multinational research project will seek to prove.
Led by the vast wealth of the United Arab Emirates, it brings together aircraft maker Boeing, petrochemical giant Honeywell UOP together with the country’s Etihad Airways and its new renewable energy research research centre, the Masdar Institute of Science and Technology, located in the multi-billion dollar Masdar City, a model community under construction that will be carbon neutral and zero-waste.
“This project will for the first time demonstrate the commercial viability of using integrated saltwater agriculture to provide biofuels for aviation,” said John Perkins, the provost of the new institute, announcing the initiative ahead of the World Future Energy Summit, being held here.
Commercial viability
Known as the Sustainable Bioenergy Research Project, the large-scale study will prove the commercial viability of creating liquid and solid biofuels based on the exploitation of halophytes: salt-tolerant plants such as Salicornia which thrive on seawater and can utilise the wastes produced in acquaculture.
In an integrated approach developed by Masdar and Boston’s Massachusetts Institute of Technology, saltwater is pumped from the sea via canals, feeding an aquaculture farming system in which fish and other seafood are produced for food.
Rather than the resulting effluent being dumped at sea, it becomes a nutrient-rich fertiliser for mangrove forests and the halophytes. These are then harvested and the seeds pressed into oil, which can be processed into aviation fuel. The remainder can be cycled back into the acquaculture and into animal feed – creating a closed loop.
Arid land
The entire system can be built on arid land with little or no existing biodiversity, and requires no fresh water, eliminating competition with food production fresh water use.
Successfully tested at small sites in Eritrea and Mexico, the project will scale-up the original concept and hopes to convert it into a commercially viable biofuels solutions for aviation.
“The paradigm for energy supply is shifting,” said Jennifer Holmgren, a vice-president of Honeywell UOP. “Energy demand is growing at 4% a year, which means will double our global energy consumption in 20 years. All future fuels will need to run on a replacement basis.”
The five-year pilot study will operate on 200 hectares outside Abu Dhabi, and would need to be scaled up scores of times for commercial production. Initially, it would be used as additional fuel blended with existing fuels, reducing the carbon emissions of aircraft.
Eventually, the goal is to produce refining techniques and aircraft engines that could accept 100% biofuel. “We’ll need learn from scaling up and optimisation, as we learn more about the process,” said Billy Glover of Boeing. “Cost will be high at first … [but] fall as optimisation kicks in.”
“To meet the growing demand for energy worldwide we must identify regional biofuel solutions that are not only sustainable, but can actually regenerate the ecosystems where they are produced,” added Holmgren.
Greater climate impact
Compared to other modes of transport, aviation has a greater climate impact per passenger kilometre. Studies have shown that high-altitude emissions trigger a series of chemical reactions and atmospheric effects that have a net warming effect.
The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has estimated that the climate impact of aircraft is two to four times greater than the effect of their carbon dioxide emissions alone.
The Emirates, with the world's sixth largest oil reserves and one of the most developed economies in the Middle East, is staking its future on renewable energies, spending heavily to create an international research hub at Masdar and attracting some of the best minds in the field.
