Agência FAPESP – Representatives of the scientific community of Brazil and the Netherlands interested in bioenergy industry and the use of biofuels in aviation participated on Thursday (03/04) in the FAPESP Office in a workshop about the Brazil – Netherlands on Advanced Integral Sustainable Biofuels Systems (BASIS) – programme. The purpose of the meeting was to structure a research and innovation program in the BASIS Programme . The initiative proposes the creation of infrastructure to boost cooperation between the two countries from the existing collaboration between the FAPESP Program for Research on Bioenergy ( BIOEN ) and BE-Basic Foundation, a public-private consortium composed mainly of Dutch universities, scientific institutions and companies .
The BASIS Program is also inspired by the “Flight plan for aviation biofuels in Brazil” – a report prepared by Boeing , Embraer and FAPESP, under the coordination of the State University of Campinas (UNICAMP), released in June 2013. The report indicated ways for Brazil to develop a prominent position in the international market, through research on feedstocks and biofuels production, distribution logistics, appropriate legislation, among others.
“FAPESP created the BIOEN program in 2009 because bioenergy and biofuels are two very important for Brazil and for the State of São Paulo , which is the second largest ethanol producer in the world issues,” said Carlos Henrique de Brito Cruz, scientific director of FAPESP at the opening of the workshop. BIOEN today brings together around 400 researchers in bioenergy projects, 60 of them linked to research centers in countries like The Netherlands, UK, France, USA and Denmark, and has partnerships with companies like Braskem , Oxiteno, Microsoft , Boeing and Dedini .
Luuk van der Wielen, president of BE- Basic Foundation and coordinator of the workshop stressed the importance of cooperation of the Dutch consortium with FAPESP, signed in 2010 . Under the agreement between the two institutions, Dutch and Brazilian researchers investigating the sustainability of ethanol production, the impacts of biofuel production and sustainable soil management in biomass production, among other topics , on selected two projects call for proposals, since 2010 . “We are delighted with the support that research in collaboration with FAPESP. BE- Basic now wants to extend this important partnershi , which means a good starting point to move forward with the participation of other Dutch and Brazilian organizations” said Van der Wielen .
From the Brazilian side, there was participation of Heitor Cantarella, member of the coordination BIOEN Program; Cylon Gonçalves da Silva , a member of the adjunct coordination of Special Programs FAPESP ; Francisco Nigro, the Polytechnic School of the University of São Paulo ( USP ) and coordinator of the report flight plan for aviation biofuels in Brazil ; Onofre Andrade , coordinator of research for biofuels Boeing Brazil ; Otavio Cavalett, representing the National Laboratory of Science and Technology of Bioethanol (CTBE). From The Netherlands’, industry and BE-Basic side participated Dirk Kronemeijer, CEO of SkyNRG , a Dutch company focused on sustainability in aviation; Al Bryant , vice president of Boeing Research and Technology; Ignaas Caryn , Director of Innovation at KLM, Rob Huyser and Petrouschka Werther, both from the Ministry of Infrastructure and Environment of the Netherlands, and Nico Schiettekatte and Theo Groothuijzen from the Ministry of Economic Affairs of the Netherlands.
(newsitem originates from FAPESP website)
