RESEARCH/AVIATION : FINLAND'S NESTE OIL JOINS ITAKA PROJECT.

Neste Oil of Finland announced, on 20 December 2012, its decision to participate in the ITAKA research project, which aims to set up a European sustainable kerosene supply chain for the aviation sector. The Finnish group, which has diversified its refining activities to include the large-scale marketing of biofuels, such as palm oil, will produce the renewable fuel targeted by the project, primarily camelina oil.

The three-year ITAKA project was officially kicked off on 1 November 2012. Out of its total cost of 17.4 million, it has been granted 9.9 million of EU funding under the 7th Research and Development Framework Programme. The Spanish air navigation agency SENASA is coordinating the activities of the project consortium, whose members also include Airbus, EADS IW, Embraer, SkyNRG, Camelina Company Espana, BIOTEHGEN, CLH, EPFL, MMU and RE-CORD. The project forms part of the European Advanced Biofuels Flight Path initiative, launched by the European Commission in 2011 with the aim of producing two million tonnes of renewable jet fuel by 2020. The ITAKA project aims to set up a supply chain linking feedstock growers, biofuel producers, distributors and final users, namely European airlines.

CERTIFICATION

The renewable jet fuel produced from camelina oil will have to meet the sustainability criteria of the RSB (Roundtable on Sustainable...