Fly the (environmentally) friendly skies: United to commence wide-scale aviation biofuels flights in 2014

Partnering with an existing oil refiner

AltAir said that it has partnered with an (unnamed) existing oil refiner for the operation of its first commercial facility and use of the refiner’s existing refinery near Los Angeles, Calif. This partnership is taking idled refining equipment and retooling it to increase the nation’s energy supply – positively impacting the southern California economy and providing the opportunity to sustainably power LAX flights.

Financing and location

Although the actual facility has not been disclosed, the Digest learned that details are expected both on the refiner’s identity, and location, possibly in June. For now, we do know that the facility utilization project is fully financed — this is a “go” project.

Back in late 2011, AltAir Fuels revealed plans to build a biojet plant in Bakersfield that it had hoped would begin producing fuel in 2012. In addition to being a regional agriculture hub for the Sam Joaquin Valley, Bakersfield is also an oil refining hub. Among other active refineries in the area: the San Joaquin Refining Company (15,000 barrels per day); Kern Oil (26,000 bpd); and Alon USA Energy (66,000 bpd).

Read more: feedstocks, financing, the Green Jet Fuel process, United and Sustainable Aviation Biofuels and background on AltAir — including a complete list of landmark demonstration flights for Honeywell’s UOP Green Jet – via the page links below.