Iberia and Airbus sign agreement to build an aviation biofuel value chain for Spain

Iberia and Airbus will be supported by the Spanish Government and led by the Air Safety State Agency to develop the value chain, aiming to reduce Spain’s dependence on fossil fuels and decrease its CO2 emissions in the aviation sector.The agreement will promote and develop the whole value chain for aviation biofuel production, providing commercial opportunities and partnership potential for R&D groups, feedstock producers, biofuel manufacturers, distributors and airlines, in both the private and public sectors. Commercializing sustainable biofuel production is the aim. More groups are expected to join the agreement in the future.Tom Enders, CEO of Airbus, stated that biofuel was of special significance to the aviation industry as “our industry has no other viable alternative energy source”.
Airbus will focus on the feasibility, life cycle and sustainability analysis of the project. Iberia will use their technical knowledge of aircraft to do tests and gather data on practical biofuel usage. This agreement is expected to attract other companies and important partners in the future. For example, later in the process biofuel producers will be identified and the most viable demonstration scale facilities will be identified for implementation and scaling up of production. Scaling up is expected to begin in by 2012.