Masdar, Abu Dhabi’s showcase city, has signed an agreement with Airbus to develop sustainable aviation fuels based on green hydrogen.
The signing ceremony was attended by His Excellency Dr Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology, President of Masdar and President-designate of COP28, and Guillaume Faury, CEO of Airbus. This agreement covers sustainable aviation fuels (SAF), green hydrogen, direct air capture technologies, as well as support for “book and claim”* solutions, which make it possible to certify the environmental character of the said solutions.
A transitional solution
The idea is to capture CO2 and mix it with green hydrogen to make synthetic fuels. “Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) is one of the best solutions to reduce the carbon footprint of the aviation sector, and this agreement will help to advance its much-needed development and growth,” explains Mikail Houari, Airbus President for Africa and the Middle East. “This new agreement with Masdar marks another milestone in the partnership between Airbus and the UAE,” he added.
This type of fuel can be used to replace paraffin without modifying the existing storage and refuelling infrastructure, aircraft or engines.
It is also an issue for the United Arab Emirates. Earlier this year, at Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week, Masdar also announced its green hydrogen initiative to produce sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) from methanol.
*A mechanism that allows aviation to source fuel from remote geographical areas, record these transactions in a register and certify the sustainability of these fuels.
Do you want to find out more about hydrogen and Airbus? Then these 2 articles (here and there) should interest you.
Article written by Laurent Meillaud and translated by Logan King
