Masdar has signed a collaboration agreement with TotalEnergies to drive green hydrogen development and produce sustainable aviation fuel (SAF).

The agreement to act as a co-developer for a demonstrator plant project which will be established at Masdar City, Abu Dhabi’s flagship sustainable urban development, was signed on the sidelines of Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week 2022.

Masdar announced the initiative last year, with collaborators including the Abu Dhabi Department of Energy, Etihad Airways, Lufthansa Group, Khalifa University of Science and Technology, Siemens Energy and Marubeni Corporation.

Since January last year, the partners in the initiative have completed a range of evaluations on technology suppliers, feasibility studies and conceptual designs, while working closely with regulators on compliance issues.

The aim is to move on to the front-end engineering design (FEED) stage later this year.

The latest deal with TotalEnergies will see the company offer its expertise in SAF production, offtake and supply the partner airlines.

Francois Good, Senior Vice President, Refining and Petrochemicals Africa Middle East and Asia at TotalEnergies said: “We are very pleased to partner with Masdar and Siemens Energy to meet the challenge of decarbonising air transport through sustainable aviation fuel from green hydrogen.

“In this project, TotalEnergies brings its expertise in renewables energy as well as SAF manufacturing and marketing advanced sustainable fuel production with the aim of acting directly on the carbon intensity of the energy products used by our customers. This is in-line with our strategy of building a multi-energy company with the ambition to get to net zero by 2050 together with society.”