Big News for the Big Heavy: As renewable diesel surges, HONEYWELL UOP dials up a one-step process to collapse capex

There’s news from Planet Honeywell UOP, that they’ve achieved a one-step conversion to renewable diesel for selected feedstocks. It’s notable for two reasons.

First, it reduces the capex for certain eligible feedstocks — right now, think quality plant oils, not rendering fats or used cooking oil. That’s going to bring along some renewable diesel projects that were on the teeter-totter, owing to questions about how to make a project affordable that is nowhere near a rendering plant or urban areas replete in cooking oils. Some massive projects like the 800 million gallon NEXT renewables along the Columbia River, or the Marathon’s 500 million Martinez project or Phillips 66’s 800 million gallon behemoth at San Ramon — all come to mind. 

Second, it shows that renewable diesel is not finished technology — even with the massive profits being booked by producers owing to RD’s fantastically low carbon scores and ability to distribute on a vast scale because it can be used 100% neat instead of in 5-20% blends like biodiesel or 10-15% blends like ethanol. (Note, there are B100 trucks, but not enough of them yet). The story of renewable diesel conversion — meaning, a wider array of feedstocks, lower capex, bigger carbon gains — the technology is delivering more all the time.

The Honeywell UOP breakthrough

The single-stage Ecofining process produces Honeywell Green Diesel fuel which is chemically identical to petroleum-based diesel and can be used as a drop-in replacement in vehicles with no modifications. It also features up to an 80-percent lifecycle reduction in greenhouse gas emissions compared with diesel made from petroleum.

The new process uses a combination of catalysts in a single unit to clean and remove oxygenates and other contaminants from the feedstock, and then isomerize the feed to improve its cold-flow properties. Due to its simplified design, the single-stage Ecofining technology can be put into service quickly, and with lower capital expense than other designs.

The single-stage Ecofining process also provides greater flexibility to expand into a full two-stage Ecofining process in the future. Two-stage designs can process feedstocks including used cooking oils and animal fats, and produce renewable jet fuel. This established technology is ideal for refinery revamps where an additional reactor is available, or may be added, for green feed processing.

What’s driving the surge in capacity building?

Honeywell UOP’s Ben Owens said the surge in orders began to reach epic scale in the past 18 months. He cited the growing interest in jet fuel. “United, Amazon Air, just to name a few,” Owens told The Digest, “the pull of the jet is strong.”

What about EV’s – aren’t IC engines going away?

Customers, said Ben Owens, see the space growing, because they see this as transitional fuel. EV’s are coming, but they are not going to hit in next 10 years, and given the greenhouse gas emissions targets, producers can’t afford to wait for EVs and, more importantly, for EV emissions to climb down from current levels. 

To illustrate the point, France announced plans to replace 2% of its fossil-based jet fuel with sustainable aviation fuels by 2025, rising to 5% by 2030 and to 50% by 2050.

The UOP Ecofining backstory

Honeywell UOP jointly developed the Ecofining process with Eni SpA. It converts non-edible natural oils and animal fats to Honeywell Green Diesel, which offers improved performance over biodiesel and petroleum-based diesel. The Ecofining process produces diesel with a cetane value of 80, substantially higher than the 40-to-60 cetane diesel commonly used in diesel engines today. As a result, this higher-cetane diesel fuel provides better engine performance with fewer emissions and can be blended with cheaper low-cetane diesel to meet transportation fuel standards.

The UOP Ecofining process is used in most 100%-biofeed units producing renewable diesel — and all of the licensed renewable jet fuel production — in the world today. UOP currently has licensed 20 Ecofining units in nine countries around the world, processing 12 different types of renewable feedstocks.

Recent big wins

In September, we reported that PT Pertamina (Persero) will use Honeywell UOP technologies to produce advanced biofuels at its Plaju and Cilacap refineries in Indonesia. The company will use UOP Renewable Jet Fuel Process technology at its Plaju refinery in Palembang, South Sumatra, and UOP Ecofining technology at its Cilacap refinery in Central Java. The biorefinery in Plaju will process 20,000 barrels per day of vegetable oils and fats to produce advanced biofuels such as renewable jet fuel, renewable diesel fuel and green liquefied petroleum gas at the Plaju refinery. UOP also will revamp the existing refinery at Cilacap to process 6,000 barrels per day of vegetable oils and fats to produce advanced biofuels.

In November, Honeywell said that Total will use the Honeywell UOP Ecofining process technology to produce renewable fuels, primarily for the aviation industry, at its Grandpuits platform at Seine-et-Marne in north central France.  Once completed, the bio-refinery will process 400,000 tons of feed per year, producing up to 170,000 tons of sustainable aviation fuel, 120,000 tons of renewable diesel and 50,000 tons of renewable naphtha for production of bioplastics.

Reaction from the stakeholders

“Interest in renewable fuels production continues to grow as customers work to meet sustainability goals and find new uses for existing assets,” said Ben Owens, vice president and general manager, Honeywell Sustainable Technology Solutions. “The new single-stage Ecofining process can help a refiner meet stricter regulations for sustainable fuels production with significant revenue advantages and minimal equipment and space requirements.”