SAO PAULO, Oct. 27 (UPI) -- Boeing, Embraer and the Sao Paulo State Research Foundation plan to collaborate on long-term aviation biofuels research and development.
The move represents a major step toward the creation of a sustainable aviation biofuel industry in Brazil.
Under the agreement, the companies are leading the development of a detailed report outlining the unique opportunities and challenges of creating a cost-effective, bio-derived and sustainable jet-fuel production and distribution industry in Brazil.
When completed in late 2012, the report, which will include a technology and sustainability road map, will be made public.
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The study will be guided by a series of public workshops during 2012 with input from a wide range of stakeholders, as well as a strategic advisory board, which will give the project wide-ranging guidance and institutional support. Members will include airlines, fuel producers and suppliers, environmental experts, community groups and government agencies.
The study will frame the creation of a sustainable aviation biofuel research center in Brazil. This center will be jointly funded by FAPESP and industry to drive a long-term research agenda for the development of aviation biofuel technology in Brazil.
"The partnership with Boeing and Embraer brings a new level of FAPESP efforts to foster research partnerships between universities and companies in Sao Paulo," said Suely Vilela, member of FAPESP's board of directors.
"The research center will be created through public selection, according to FAPESP's Research, Innovation and Diffusion Centers, which aim to establish long-term advanced core research that results in innovation."
FAPESP in 2008 announced a broad research program in bio-energy through which the foundation supports more than 300 biomass and biofuel production scientists from Brazil and 11 other countries.
