Partners to develop sustainable fuels value chain in Brazil

Green Fuels and INOCAS have signed an agreement on future sustainable fuel production for the marine sector.

As signatories of the Zona da Mata Biokerosene and Renewables Platform – an integrated biofuels and reforestation value chain promoted by the City of Juiz de Fora – Green Fuels and INOCAS will use macaúba – a species of palm – in intercropping and agrosilvopastoral techniques.

The agreement will also support fuel production for the distributed energy and land and air transport sectors.

‘Considering that the species of macaúba, acrocomia aculeata, produces on average four times more per hectare in relation to other oilseeds, generates more jobs, can be produced in consortium with other crops or in silvopastoral regime and adapts to any producer from family to large entrepreneur, reducing the effects of rural exodus, and can be produced in a great diversity of soil and climate, it has the capacity of generating more sustainable income,’ said Johannes Zimple, CEO of INOCAS.

This, says Green Fuels, will be achieved through practical measurement of parameters such as United Nations sustainable development goals (UNSDG) compliance, biodiversity and effect of land use change and productivity, to promote recovery of degraded pasture through sustainable land use combined with environmentally sensitive reforestation, supporting the replenishment of the region´s aquifers and river basins. 

‘Green Fuels will use these TDUs to inform Brazilian and international stakeholders as to the macaúba production model’s sustainability, and to differentiate it from unsustainable oil crops,’ Manuel Luis M. Thompson-Flôres, CEO of Green Fuels Ventures América Latina.

In July, Green Fuels announced it was to lead the SALMO project, which will demonstrate the use of waste from fish farming to produce sustainable marine fuel.

SALMO is a collaboration between Green Fuels Research, the University of Cardiff and London South Bank University.

A Maritime Research and Innovation UK (MarRI-UK) initiative supported by the UK Department for Transport, SALMO will convert waste biomass from salmon farming into drop-in fuels suitable for use in marine diesel engines.