Masdar and Boeing’s Qatari catch-up

Cleantech.com has an article on Masdar‘s aim to get into the biofuel for air transport market using saliconiaMasdar and Boeing’s Qatari catch-up.

Not to be upstaged by a similar announcement last week, a Masdar-led consortium today reiterated its own jet fuel from saltwater plant project, with an airline partner.

Masdar, Boeing and Honeywell’s UOP today announced details of a jet fuel from saltwater plant research project first acknowledged four months ago.

And included today was a new partner: Etihad Airways, the national airline of the United Arab Emirates. …

The Masdar Institute of Science and Technology is to lead the project, aimed at assessing the technical, commercial and environmental viability of producing large scale jet fuel and co-products from the saltwater herb salicornia.

Others are investigating salicornia for biofuel use, given the plant’s tolerance for seawater, including experimental fields in Ras al-Zawr in Saudi Arabia, Eritrea in Northeast Africa, and Sonora in Northwest Mexico aimed at the production of biodiesel.

Cleantech.com also has a set of pictures of the (slowly) emerging Masdar city – Pictures from a walking tour of Masdar City.