China is expected to be Boeing’s partner to develop environmentally friendly technology for the aviation industry. The United States airplane manufacturer is currently engaged in active talks with the Chinese Academy of Sciences and several other Chinese universities about the terms of the potential partnership.

Matthew Ganz, vice president and general manager of Boeing Research and Technology, said that the collaboration would be on research and development and would focus on the development of biofuels to lower the aviation industry’s carbon footprint.

Other technological areas have also been identified as areas for cooperation, such as environmental protection, air traffic management and aviation safety.

The U.S. aircraft producer has been collaborating with aircraft engine companies and airlines to explore the adoption of biofuels in aviation. China, a longtime producer of Boeing aircraft components, is seen by the company as a potential leader in biofuel development.

China has also been promoting the development of biofuel plantations to reduce the country’s dependence on oil, and has planting programs already in place in the provinces of Yunnan, Sichuan and Guizhou. China is expected to have 13 million hectares of biofuel plantations by 2020.

Boeing is looking to utilize second-generation biofuels such as jatropha for use as jet fuel and is exploring ways to increase the economic feasibility of using biofuels.

Mike Hurd, deputy director of environmental services strategy for Boeing Commercial Aviation services, said that commercialization plans for jatropha could comprise near term collaboration opportunities. He also said that a mass production and distribution system for the commercial use of biofuels would take another three to five years of development.

Boeing has conducted flight tests using biofuels since 2008, and has found that second-generation biofuels such as jatropha, algae and halophytes outperform first generation biofuels such as ethanol in terms of industry specifications. Despite biofuel having four to five times the cost of traditional aviation fuel, it is considered a significant way for the aviation industry to reduce oil dependence and cut back aviation emission.

The aviation industry accounts for 2 percent of global carbon dioxide emissions. The European Union has warned of sanctions for airline companies that fail to reduce their carbon footprints by 2012.

-   Karl Go