Abu Dhabi Claims World’s First Bioenergy Facility to Produce Both Food and Aviation Fuels
(Bioenergy Insight) The Sustainable Bioenergy Research Consortium (SBRC), a non-consortium supported by Etihad Airways, Boeing and Honeywell UOP, claims that it will soon launch the world’s first bioenergy research facility using desert land, irrigated by seawater, to produce both food and aviation fuels in Abu Dhabi.
The facility will be launched in March and is located on a two-hectare site at Masdar City — a low-carbon sustainable urban development in Abu Dhabi.
According to the SBRC, the 20,000 square-metre bioenergy pilot plant will include saltwater aquaculture ponds where fish and shrimp will be grown.
Water from the ponds, including nutrient-rich waste produced by these fish, will be used to irrigate and fertilise salt-tolerant halophyte plants that will then be harvested and turned into aviation biofuel and other products.
Flowing from the halophyte fields, the seawater will also nourish a wetland planted with mangroves – a plant that serves as a natural carbon sink to absorb carbon dioxide from the air. READ MORE and MORE (PR Newswire/Boeing) and MORE (Biofuels International)