Renewable jet fuels perform equally with conventional fuels, Honeywell reports to Paris Air Show

In France, Honeywell reported at the Paris Air Show that analysis of test burns at its propulsion labs showed no material difference between the performance of renewable jet fuels and fossil fuels. The test burns were conducted in the company’s 131-9 auxiliary power units and TFE 731-5 turbofan engine, using fuel produced by Honeywell UOP for use in the Boeing biofuels test flight program.

In March, UOP and Ensyn announced the formation of a new joint venture, dubbed Envergent Technologies, that will market technologies and equipment for generating power, transportation fuel and heating oil from biomass using pyrolysis.

The joint venture was initially announced in prospect last September, and will utilize forest and agriculture residues as feedstocks in a Rapid Thermal process, where feedstocks are heated in the absence of oxygen, to produce pyrolysis oils that can be utilized directly in heating oil or power gen.

Pyrolysis oils can be refined into transportation fuel. UOP also owns a Renewable Energy & Chemicals business that produced green diesel using its Ecofining process, a well as renewable jet fuel from biomass.

The Ensyn process, according to the company, takes less than two seconds to convert biomass to liquid in what they refer to as a “tornado of hot sand”. UOP, which is developing biomass-based jet fuel under a contract with DARPA, said that it would contribute technology and equipment to the JV.

Jennifer Holmgren, general manager for UOP’s Renewable Energy unit, said at the time of the Continental test flight last December that  “we are united by a common vision,” and said that UOP and all the partners had been searching for fuels that were a drop-in replacement for current aviation fuel (requiring no engine or aircraft modifications, or additional infrastructure), and economically, environmentally and socially sustainable. “We now have a fuel that meets that criteria”, she said.

UOP has said that it expects to be ready to license its jet fuel technology in summer 2009.

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