Embraer, GE, Amyris and Azul join forces to make use of biokerosene feasible
Valor Econômico
Aviation biokerosene made from cane-sugar may be available for commercial use as of 2013 or 2014. That is the expectation of American Amyris, which joined forces with GE, Azul and Embraer to develop the fuel and carry out a flight test in the beginning of 2012. Amyris has a research and test center in Campinas (SP) and intends to buy an alcohol and sugar mill in Brazil to produce biokerosene, a hydrocarbon from sugar-cane.
The managing officer of the company in Brazil, Belgian Roel Collier, affirmed the expectation is that the deal should be closed in the coming weeks. The project of Amyris, a company founded six years ago in the United States and present in Brazil for two, involves adding a type of yeast to the juice of the sugarcane, in a stage subsequent to the crushing of the product. The yeast, developed by the company, brews, creating a type of oil that is separated from the sugarcane juice through a process of centrifugation.
Despite being produced from cane, the biokerosene has calorific value equal or superior to the equivalent oil byproduct, but with carbon dioxide (CO2) emission levels similar to ethanol's. Biokerosene, an alternative fuel that will be added to the conventional aviation kerosene, appears as the result of pressures for commercial aviation to do its part in the reduction of the emissions of greenhouse gases. Guilherme Freire, the Embraer officer of strategies and technologies for the environment, said aviation is responsible for 2% of total of CO2 emissions in the world, with projection to get to 3% by 2050.
In the test that will be made in an Embraer airplane of Azul Linhas Aéreas in 2012, one of the engines of the aircraft - which will be piloted by the Vice President of Operations of Azul, Miguel Dau - will be running on biokerosene mixed to regular aviation kerosene at a ratio of 20% to 50%. Collier said the costs of production of biokerosene should follow the costs of ethanol, since 60% of the costs are associated to the raw material used. The acquisition of the plant by Amyris should allow the company to produce the product in industrial scale in Brazil as of 2013.
The Business Development Officer for GE in Brazil, Claudio Loureiro, said that in February 2008 British airline Virgin flew between London and Amsterdam with 20% of babassu oil mixed to aviation kerosene and he informed that, in the USA, Continental and Boeing are developing a project, for a flight in 2011, to use biofuel added to the traditional kerosene.
"But this (Azul's flight) will be the first flight in the world with sugar-cane biokerosene", he said. To develop the technology, GE, Embraer and Amyris have signed a memorandum of understanding. Azul Linhas Aéreas Brasileiras plans on closing 2010 with a fleet of 21 aircrafts, but it does not rule out the possibility that the growth of the Brazilian economy may speed the pace of acquisition of aircrafts, said Dau. Azul currently has a fleet of 14 Embraer aircrafts.