Honeywell and Wood have launched a comprehensive package of technologies to support the effort to produce carbon-neutral aviation fuel. When used together, the technologies, which are based on Honeywell's UOP Ecofining process technology and Wood's hydrogen plant technology, could reduce lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) by 100% using certain feedstocks when compared to traditional petroleum aviation fuel.

The UOP Ecofining process technology converts waste oils, fats, and greases into Honeywell Green Jet Fuel, a drop-in replacement for jet fuel. When using a feedstock such as used cooking oils, lifecycle GHG emissions can be reduced by 80% at this stage compared to conventional petroleum jet fuel.

As the next step in enhancing the Ecofining process technology offering, Wood's technology will be integrated to use the byproducts of the UOP Ecofining process technology to produce renewable hydrogen, reducing lifecycle GHG emissions a further 10% when compared to the total GHG emissions produced by conventional petroleum jet fuel. The renewable hydrogen is then injected back into the Honeywell Ecofining process to remove feed impurities and create a cleaner burning renewable fuel.

The CO₂ that is generated from the production of the hydrogen can be captured and routed for permanent underground sequestration using the Honeywell H₂ Solutions technology suite, further reducing lifecycle GHG emissions an additional 10% when compared to the total GHG emissions produced by conventional petroleum jet fuel. The combination of technologies results in an aviation fuel that is effectively carbon neutral compared to petroleum fuels.

"The combination of these technologies from Honeywell and Wood greatly reduces fossil carbon dioxide emissions compared to traditional fuels by using byproducts to provide hydrogen for the Ecofining process," said Ben Owens, vice president and general manager of Honeywell Sustainable Technology Solutions. "As a result, a renewable fuels refinery can be essentially self-sustaining in hydrogen production while reducing the carbon intensity of the renewable fuels to very low levels."

Recently, the U.S. Department of Energy, the U.S. Department of Transportation, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and other federal government agencies worked together to introduce the Sustainable Aviation Fuel Grand Challenge with a goal to produce 3 B gallons per year of sustainable aviation fuel by 2030 in the U.S. If those 3 B gallons of SAF were produced using Honeywell's comprehensive package of technologies, it could result in the equivalent of 34 MM metric t of cumulative CO₂ avoided per year, depending on the oil and fat feedstock mix used.