China plans biofuels industry

Boeing, PetroChina and Air China have begun to evaluate setting up a sustainable aviation biofuels industry in China. Other US participants include AECOM, Honeywell's UOP and United Technologies.

The project will look at all phases of sustainable aviation biofuel development including agronomy, energy inputs and outputs, life cycle emissions analysis, infrastructure and government policy support.

Potential plant sources being considered are only ones that don't distort the global food-chain, compete with fresh water resource or lead to unintended land use change.

Boeing China president David Wang commented: "Sustainable biofuels can help reduce carbon emissions while offering the potential to lessen aviation's dependence on fossil fuels."

In a related move, Boeing Research & Technology and the Chinese Academy of Science's Qingdao Institute of Bioenergy and Bioprocess Technology have agreed to include other research institutions and aviation supply chain participants as part of their efforts in algae-based aviation biofuel development.