DES PLAINES, Ill. (PRNewswire) — UOP LLC, a Honeywell company, announced today that its renewable jet fuel process technology will be used to produce almost 600,000 gallons of renewable jet fuel for the U.S. Navy and Air Force as part of a joint program for the U.S. Defense Energy Support Center (DESC) for alternative fuels testing and certification.
Working with feedstock partners Sustainable Oils, Solazyme and Cargill, Honeywell's UOP will produce up to 190,000 gallons of fuel for the Navy and 400,000 gallons for the Air Force from sustainable, non-food feedstocks including animal fats, algae and camelina. The initial fuel will be delivered in 2009 and 2010 to support certification and testing of alternative fuels for U.S. military aircraft.
"We are pleased to see that the U.S. military is taking this important step toward the use of bio-derived jet fuel on its platforms," said Jennifer Holmgren, general manager of UOP Renewable Energy & Chemicals. "We have proven our technology produces a viable fuel in commercial flight applications and are pleased to have the opportunity to work with our partners to support the needs of the U.S. military."
DESC awarded a contract to Sustainable Oils for use of camelina as the feedstock to produce fuel, and Solazyme was awarded a contract for use of algae as the feedstock. UOP was awarded a contract for fuel made from tallow, or animal fat, provided by Cargill. These sustainable feedstocks do not interfere with valuable food, land or water resources.
The UOP process technology for the production of high-quality renewable jet fuel was originally developed in 2007 under a contract from the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to produce renewable JP-8 fuel for the U.S. military. The technology was used to produce renewable jet fuel for demonstration flights conducted with Boeing, Air New Zealand, Continental Airlines and Japan Airlines earlier this year. In each flight, these biofuels met or exceeded performance specifications for petroleum-based jet fuel and displayed no adverse effects on any of the aircraft systems.
UOP's renewable jet fuel process utilizes traditional refinery hydroprocessing technology to convert natural oils and fats to renewable synthetic paraffinic kerosene (SPK). SPK meets all of the critical specifications for flight and can be blended with petroleum-based jet fuel for use without any modification to the aircraft.