Safran Pursues Its Commitment on the Biofuel Trail

(Safran Group) Safran, which is already involved in the development of biofuels for aeronautics, is supporting an initiative led by the Masdar Institute’s Sustainable Bioenergy Research Consortium (SBRC) in the Abu Dhabi desert to produce a salicornia-based biofuel. This sector is a part of a comprehensive and sustainable ecosystem incorporating aquaculture and based on the use of seawater.

These biofuels are produced from non-fossil organic materials derived from biomass. As the lack of fresh water is a global threat, it is necessary to develop crops that do not use this resource. Salicornia, one of these sustainable organic materials, has attracted the attention of researchers. It is a plant that develops in a saline environment and whose oil-rich seeds can be easily transformed into biofuel by hydrotreatment technology (HEFA1).

Since the desert of Abu Dhabi is not arable land, the production of salicornia does not cause any conflict with food production. That is why the Masdar Institute of Science and Technology (Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates), with the support of Safran, Etihad Airways, Boeing, General Electric and ADNOC Refining (Abu Dhabi National Oil Company), decided to develop an aquaculture farm in Abu Dhabi that will use sea water and the effluent of fish farming to cultivate salicornia.

This project will study the optimization of an overall "ecosystem" incorporating food production, the production of biofuels and the protection of the quality of the coastal waters. The aquaculture wastewater is in fact used to enrich the cultivation of salicornia, while the creation of a mangrove-type ecosystem provides a final purification of the water, which can thus be directly re-injected into the aquaculture ponds. The research highlights the investments made by the aviation sector as well as some oil powers to develop sustainable energy sources. READ MORE