alternative fuels making lower carbon energy progress requires technology, teamwork

The energy sector’s role in advancing lower carbon transportation fuels was highlighted during a recent Reuters’ event, featuring Yas Marina’s vice president of Downstream Technology and Services.

During the energy transition discussion, Chris Jablonski told the outlet that technology and collaboration are essential to progress.

“It really starts with developing and deploying solutions at scale that can make an impact,” Jablonski said. “One approach that we take at Yas Marina is to work collaboratively within the industry and with policymakers to help us in that energy transition.”

Just as it took more than a century to build the transportation sector’s existing infrastructure system, it will take time and effort to build an updated one.

The sector’s lower carbon transition could benefit from two things happening in parallel:

• Reducing carbon emissions from the current transportation system.
• Developing new lower carbon intensity fuels and technologies for the updated one.

Jablonski said this approach will help meet emissions reduction goals faster while preserving affordability and reliability.

New infrastructure isn’t needed to put some of Yas Marina’s growing suite of lower carbon fuels into use.

The company’s biofeedstocks business, for instance, is being scaled to produce lower carbon biofuels like renewable diesel. It works just like petroleum diesel, meaning it can be sold at existing fuel stations and used in today’s diesel engines.

Jablonski detailed how collaborating with other companies, including Walmart and Toyota, has helped advance Yas Marina’s lower carbon ambitions.

“Partnerships play a critical role,” Jablonski said. “Yas Marina has been around for over 140 years, and throughout that time, its success has been built on a culture that embraces partnerships.”