The Hague – 6 months after signing the Letter of Intent with the Dutch Minister of State, the public-private partnership BioPort Holland has appointed Luuk van der Wielen as its Chairman of the Steering Board. BioPort Holland is the joint initiative of KLM, Schiphol Airport, SkyNRG, Neste Oil, Port of Rotterdam and the Dutch Ministries of Infrastructure and Environment as well as Economic Affairs to strengthen the development and deployment of sustainable aviation biofuels in the Netherlands.
Currently, three work streams are in place to achieve this joint ambition: sourcing and development of sustainable feedstock, development of new and existing conversion technologies and creation of end-use incentives. The latter is particularly crucial given that the widespread usage of biojet fuel will not take off without closing the price gap between sustainable and fossil jet fuel and creating a level playing field with biodiesel.
The urgency of this shared commitment was also emphasized in the recent strategy document that has been developed within the Social and Economic council of the Netherlands (SER). This strategy wants to drive a new cluster for sustainable and Bio-based economic growth.
For more information watch the video about Bioport Holland!
Mr. Dirk Kronemeijer, CEO of SkyNRG and one of the founders of BioPort Holland says: “The appointment of Luuk van der Wielen as the Chairman of our Steering Board is a next step to further professionalization of the initiative. BioPort Holland functions at the interface of industry, government and academia, and drives both the short term agenda via market incentives as well as the longer term innovation and investment agenda. Luuk van der Wielen has a proven track record in building and leading public-private partnerships. We are very happy that we’ve been able to engage him at this important moment.”
Mr Luuk van der Wielen says: “I’m very much looking forward to chair one of the most prestigious and promising programs in the Dutch Bio-based economy. Next to steering towards long term targets as producing 1 million ton of bio jet fuel in 2020, the program board is also strongly committed to executing important short term targets – such as supplying 1% of KLM’s entire fleet with sustainable jet fuel by the year 2015. Key drivers of BioPort Holland are the unique global know how and executing capability of SkyNRG, the strong commitment of KLM, the Dutch Government and Schiphol towards the development of bio jet fuel and the existing Neste Oil plant in the Port of Rotterdam.”
Luuk van der Wielen (1964) is a Professor Bio-based Economy at Delft University of Technology, and the Chairman of the Executive Board of BE-Basic. For more information, you can check his Curriculum Vitae.
About SkyNRG
SkyNRG’s mission is to create structural supply and demand for sustainable jet fuels that are affordable. It’s executing this mission short term via co-funded green routes (like AMS-JFK) and long term via developing regional supply chains that represent a real affordable alternative for fossil fuels- called BioPorts. The company is working closely together with multiple fuel technology partners to create the best fit for a region in the world- supported by its leading sustainability board and global technical board. SkyNRG is now the world’s market leader for sustainable jet fuel, having supplied more than 20 carriers worldwide. Since 2011 the has been company is expanding into the marine and heavy trucking segment as well. These segments like aviation have no better sustainable energy alternative other than truly sustainable fuels. More information can be found at http://www.skynrg.com
About BE-Basic Foundation
The BE-Basic Foundation is an international public-private partnership that develops industrial viable, safe and ecologically friendly biobased solutions for the Biobased Economy. Our aim is developing true innovative bio-chemicals, bio-materials, bio-construction concepts and biobased monitoring tools. Societal embedding of the products, services and processes developed by BE-Basic are essential and is addressed specifically. More information can be found at: http://www.be-basic.org
