First camelina biofuel value chain in Europe

Airbus and TAROM Romanian Air Transport together with a group of key stakeholders have established one of Europe’s first projects aiming to establish a sustainable aviation biofuel processing and production capability. The Romania based project aims to provide a biofuel made from camelina as a sustainable substitute to fossil based jet fuel.

The project is developed by a consortium of partners led by TAROM, and joined by Airbus, CCE (Camelina Company España) and a refining technology provider. CCE contributes knowledge on camelina agronomy, including technologies on camelina growth, agricultural monitoring networks and plant science, and Airbus contributes technical and project management expertise while sponsoring the sustainability assessment and life cycle analysis studies.

The first part of the project is focused on feasibility studies on agricultural, technological and aeronautical development and sustainability assessment.

The project will also assess the existing refining facilities in order to identify the Romanian production capability. The feedstock chosen for this project is the camelina plant due to its energy potential, its rotational crop qualities, its green house gas reduction efficiency and low water requirements. Camelina is indigenous to Romania, it can be readily farmed and harvested by family farmers and has a high quality animal feed by-product.