Boeing and South African Airways join forces to make tobacco fuel

Boeing, South African Airways (SAA) and SkyNRG have announced a collaboration to produce environmentally friendly aviation biofuels from a new tobacco variety. This initiative will expand the partnership between Boeing and SAA in the development of renewable aviation fuels, which will contribute to the development of social health, as well as the economy and agriculture in South Africa.





“Working with South African Airways on a ground-breaking project to make clean aviation fuel from energy-rich tobacco is an honor for Boeing,” said J. Miguel Santos, CEO of Boeing International’s Africa division. South Africa is at the forefront of bringing a valuable new source of biofuels to market, which will help reduce aviation’s environmental impact and boost the region’s economy.

SkyNRG is expanding production of a hybrid plant called Solaris, which farmers can grow as an energy crop instead of traditional tobacco. At the moment in South Africa, trial cultivation of these plants, which are practically free of nicotine. Large and small farms are expected to start producing biofuels in the next few years. At the initial stage, the oil obtained from the seeds of the plant will be processed into aviation fuel. In the coming years, Boeing expects to increase production of aviation biofuels in South Africa from other parts of the plant through the introduction of new technologies.

“With hybrid tobacco, we can take advantage of South Africa’s tobacco cultivation experience to grow a competitive biofuel crop without encouraging smoking,” said Ian Cruickshank, environmental specialist at South African Airways. “This is another area of SAA and Boeing working together to create sustainable biofuels that will open up new economic opportunities for our region.”

We strongly believe in the high potential of Solaris in the South African region as the basis for clean and inexpensive fuels, says Maarten van Dijk, SkyNRG Chief Technology Officer.

In October 2013, Boeing and SAA announced they were working together to build a clean aviation biofuel supply chain in South Africa. As part of this project, companies are collaborating with the Green Biomaterials Roundtable to promote the cultivation of biofuels by small-scale farm owners in order to ensure socio-economic contributions to local communities without harming land use, food and water resources.





Boeing is a leader in the aviation industry in the development of environmentally friendly aviation biofuels, cooperating in this direction with partners from the United States, Europe, China, the Middle East, Brazil, Japan, South Africa, Australia and other countries. With rational production, aviation biofuels can reduce carbon emissions by 50-80 percent compared to petroleum jet fuel throughout the life cycle. Since biofuel certification in 2011, airlines have already operated more than 1,500 passenger flights using biofuel.

Source: www.priroda.su/