Honeywell’s UOP: Biofuels Digest’s 2015 5-Minute Guide

February 2, 2015 | Jim Lane

Honeywell’s UOP has developed a renewable jet fuel processing technology, a renewable diesel process, as well as a joint venture, Envergent Technologies, that will market technologies and equipment for generating power, transportation fuel and heating oil from biomass using pyrolysis.

The joint venture 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.

UOP also owns a Renewable Energy & Chemicals business that produced green diesel using its Ecofining process.

Rankings

50 Hottest Companies in Bioenergy: 2014/15, #22

Biofuels Digest Awards: Biofuels Digest’s 2012 Best Technology Extension Award: Envergent—Kapolei, HI

The Situation:

UOP has been continuing to deploy Honeywell Green Fuel in a series of deployment announcements. Most recently, UOP technology was linked to an 80 million gallon project that is at the heart of the US Navy’s advances into biofuels. Not to mention a pair of large scale (120-130 mgy) renewable diesel projects in the US, and an absolutely massive 300 million gallon project for Fujairah in the United Arab Emirates.

More to come, we expect.

Business Model

Licensor; often develops technologies in partnerships.

Past milestones:

In October 2014, UOP announced that its advanced process technology will be used to produce renewable diesel for the U.S. military through the U.S. Department of Defense Advanced Drop-in Biofuels Production Project. Emerald Biofuels LLC will use Honeywell’s UOP/Eni Ecofining process technology to refine non-edible oils and animal fats into renewable diesel, also known as Honeywell Green Diesel, which is a drop-in replacement for conventional diesel derived from petroleum.

In August 2014, word went around of a 120 million gallon renewable diesel and jet fuel project that’s been announced for South Point, in Lawrence County in the southeastern part of the Buckeye State. Scheduled for completion in 2017. Turned out that the massive project proposes to utilize Honeywell UOP technology.

In July 2014, UOP announced that its green fuels process technology was selected by Petrixo Oil & Gas to produce renewable jet fuel and renewable diesel at a new refinery to be built in Fujairah, United Arab Emirates. At the time, Petrixo said it would invest $800 million to build the new refinery, which will have a design capacity of 1 million tons per year of biofuel products including biojet, green diesel, bio-naphtha, bio-LPG, and biodiesel, and would be the first commercial-scale renewable jet fuel production facility outside of North America. The deal is huge because the capacity is, too. 1 million tons — think roughly 300 million gallons.

In May 2014, Honeywell-owned UOP partnered with the Diamond Green Diesel plant in Norco, La. to use its UOP/Eni Ecofining process technology. Able to produce over 130 million gallons of green diesel annually, the plant is the largest of its kind in the U.S. Known as Honeywell Green Diesel™, the facility produces high-quality renewable diesel from inedible oils and waste products. With a potential to achieve up to 80% greenhouse gas emissions savings, the UOP process produces a drop-in renewable diesel that requires no engine modifications.

In January 2014, the Italian naval ship ITS Foscari was refuelled with 30 cubic meters of green F76 and the day after, during the sea trial, its two 6480 kW/each propulsion diesel engines and its three 940 kW/each gensets on board burned 28 cubic meters (740 gallons) of NATO naval fuel standard compliant green F76.

The green F76 was blended with 50% in volume of petroleum derived marine gasoil and 50% of second generation advanced biofuel obtained through the Ecofining hydro-treatment process, developed by ENI and Honeywell’s UOP to convert fatty acids and triglycerides, (acquired via vegetable oils and tallow).

The process produces Honeywell Green Diesel — a high performing diesel fuel that can be used without any modification to the existing equipments on board, and that it is fully compatible with current logistic system.

In October 2013, UOP announced that Honeywell Green Jet Fuel produced using Honeywell’s UOP Renewable Jet Fuel process powered the first commercial flight in Colombia operating with renewable jet fuel. A LAN Airbus A320 aircraft traveled with 174 passengers from Bogotá El Dorado International Airport to Santiago de Cali, Colombia. One of the aircraft’s two engines was powered by a 30/70 blend of Honeywell Green Jet Fuel and petroleum-derived jet fuel. The renewable fuel was made with natural oils from camelina, an inedible plant that grows in conditions where food crops can not be grown. The flight marked the first time any aircraft in Colombia has flown on renewable jet fuel.

In November 2012, UOP renovated an Eni oil refinery near Venice to produce renewable diesel. The two-step process called UOP/Eni Ecofining takes vegetable oils such as palm or soy oils, as well as algal oils and waste cooking oil to produce its Green Diesel. The plan is to eventually convert Eni’s entire Venice refinery to the new technology.