UOP, UOP and Away! Honeywell UOP launches its ethanol-to-jet technology

News has arrived from North Carolina that Honeywell UOP is deploying a new ethanol-to-jet fuel (ETJ) processing technology that allows producers to convert corn-based, cellulosic, or sugar-based ethanol into sustainable aviation fuel. Depending on the type of ethanol feedstock used, jet fuel produced from Honeywell’s ethanol-to-jet fuel process can reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 80% on a total lifecycle basis, compared to petroleum-based jet fuel. And the company is talking about “lower CAPEX and OPEX” than other solutions and “higher profit margins” — those are claims that are going to get a lot of attention, which they deserve, and some scrutiny.

The technology backstory

You can click here to learn more about Honeywell’s Ethanol to Jet Technology. I’m not sure how much you’ll learn. At the Digest, we’ve long code-named the company Fort Know for its ability to guard its catalytic secrets as well as, perhaps better, than the US gold hoard. No Goldfingers in the UOP tent. 

What can we tell you? Our understanding is that the process company is dehydrating ethanol into ethylene, then dimerizing and oligomerizing to a kerosene-range fuel. Couple of companies are taking that approach  — it comes down to the Battle Royal of Catalysts, doesn’t it? We understand that UOP has developed different catalysts employed in every key step of that process. So, it may come down to whether you have a belief, shared by many, that UOP is the Big Cheese of oil refining industry catalysts and that accordingly, they’re going to have the most efficient reactions leading to better yields or lower costs. No reason to dispute that, or that UOP probably knows more about oil refining units than anyone else. So, they are going to be a formidable competitor, especially when it comes to refinery conversions.

Greenfields — well, that could be another story. Lots of variables that are not strictly about superior technology.

Two claims relating to lower costs and faster construction

We saw this in the Honeywell guidance: “SAF plants using Honeywell’s technology can be modularized off site enabling lower installed costs and faster, less labor-intensive installation compared to job site construction. By utilizing Honeywell’s ETJ technology and an integrated, modular construction approach, producers can build new SAF capacity more than a year faster than is possible with traditional construction approaches.”

So, modularized? Yes they are modular and that can grant benefits, especially in places where oil refining assets are not traditionally built. 

Also, Honeywell avers, “Petroleum refiners and transportation fuel producers can also benefit from Honeywell’s ETJ design that is purpose-built to enable conversion of current or idle facilities into SAF production plants, potentially maximizing use of exiting sites for SAF production to meet the growing market demand.”

The Bottom Line

OUP, OUP and Away. Is it a Bird, a Plane? No, it’s another leaping-tall-buildings-at-a-single-bound technology from UOP for which we don’t have a lot hard data around. Everyone’s question will be the traditional one. Is it better than anything else out there? As I think Berthold Brecht put it in the Threepenny Feedstock Opera, erst kommt das NDA, dann kommt die Answers.

In the end, how much do we really know about the performance specs of Superman? I mean, he’s faster than a speeding bullet, exactly how much faster is anyone’s guess, right? So, we’d sure like to know more, but we’ve long learned to live the industry’s penchant for secrecy without actually becoming ill. We’d recommend checking it out, faster than you can say “Clark Kent”.

One thing this cleared up for us, and that was why Honeywell nixed former CEO John Pierce becoming chairman of the board at LanzaTech, citing non-compete issues which puzzled us at the time since Honeywell wasn’t anywhere near the ethanol or renewable chemicals business. Ach, so.

Three items to mention.

1. Those GHG numbers. Put as much attention on the GHG numbers as you can. In the end, SAF is a carbon mitigation strategy whose value is more in the carbon reduction, for now, than in the fuel. So, is it 80 percent, some of the time, nearly all of the time, or using feedstock gathered from the mist-tops of Neptune? We’ll see. 

2. RINs. Right now, you make two gallons of ethanol, you get two D6 RINs, most of the time. If you were to turn those two gallons into one gallon of SAF, do you get one RIN (for the SAF), two (for the ethanol), or three (for both). We suspect the chances of getting three are zero. But you might able to claim the two and not get stuck with the one. That will be vital — so as not to run afoul of NLACM, the Natural Law of Alternative Commodity Markets. 

3. Oil people love UOP. If we were forced to guess, we’d guess that UOP will got more phone calls in the short run from oil refiners than ethanol producers. 

About that Ol’ Grand Switcheroo

In 2021, the Biden Administration announced its Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) Grand Challenge for the U.S. aviation fuel supply sector to produce at least three billion gallons of SAF per year by 2030 and reduce emissions from aviation by 20%, with an eventual goal of meeting 100% of U.S. aviation fuel demand with SAF by 2050. Also in 2021, the European Council released its ‘Fit for 55′ package which aims to increase the share of sustainable fuels at EU airports from a minimum of 2% in 2025 to at least 63% by 2050. These and other incentives, including the Inflation Reduction Act, accelerate the need for alternative SAF feedstocks to meet demand.

Reaction from the stakeholders

“Honeywell pioneered SAF production with its Ecofining technology, and our new ethanol-to-jet fuel process builds on that original innovation to support the global aviation sector’s efforts to reduce GHG emissions and meet SAF production targets with an abundant feedstock like ethanol,” said Barry Glickman, vice president and general manager, Honeywell Sustainable Technology Solutions. “Honeywell’s ethanol- to-jet process, when used as a standalone or when coupled with Honeywell carbon capture technology, is ready now to provide a pathway to lower carbon-intensity SAF.”