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James Rekoske, Vice President and General Manager
of Renewable Energy and Chemicals for Honeywell
UOP said, “the flight has accomplished two
goals- First, it demonstrates the willingness
of the aviation industry to participate in the
search for more environmentally friendly fuel
sources, and second, it advances approval by the
U.S. FAA of the 50/50 Green Jet Fuel blend, which
Honeywell expects to receive in mid-July. We have
been granted the American Society of Testing Materials
(ASTM) approval early this month.”
“It will be four or five years before Green
Jet Fuel will be available on a commercial scale
at parity with jet fuel As production increases
and more fuel is available, we believe that Green
Jet Fuel will become cost competitive,” said
Rekoske.
“Despite our work in the initial development
of the Green Jet Fuel, we do not plan to go into
the biofuel business, but will license the process
and allow others to continue further development
and distribution. It is for the industry to tie
up with existing refineries and start production
with our technology,” said James M Anderson,
Business Director, Renewable Energy and Chemicals,
UOP.
“The good news for aircraft manufacturers
is that requirement to change the engine and hence
there will be no disturbance in the existing supply
chain management for engine spares. Green Jet
Fuel is a drop-in replacement and has been tested
on Pratt & Whitney, GE , Snecma and Honeywell
engines. The biofuel has been found compatible
to all these engines,” added Anderson.
The fuel is produced for UOP under license by
a Houston, Texas refinery. It was developed under
a grant from the U.S. Defense Advanced Research
Projects Agency (DARPA) and is based on hydro-processing
technology commonly used in today’s refineries
to produce transportation fuels, he informed.
“Tests have been done by US military and
some commercial airlines like KLM, JAL, Air New
Zealand and Continental. All have been very successful
and it is the fuel of the future if we want to
lessen the carbon footprint. In this flight we
saved 5.5 metreic tonnes of CO2 emissions,”
he said.
Jim Andersen observed: "Overall it results
in between a 60 to 85 percent reduction in greenhouse
gas emissions compared to flying with traditional
fossil fuel. One of the things that's been key
for us is to make sure that it was a sustainable
resource, so we're using feedstocks that don't
compete with our food supply chain. In particular
the fuel that we flew was derived from camelina
oil. A half-dozen sources–ranging from algae
to the jatropha plant are being used to develop
the fuel, depending on availability. "
“Fuel represents about 40% of airline carriers'
total cost--and oil that costs $100 a barrel is
a major incentive for airlines and aviation companies
to find an alternative. Some companies in USA
are aggressively pursuing renewable jet fuel,
made from waste grease and vegetable oil to replace
some of the 17 billion gallons of petroleum-based
fuel the aviation industry consumes every year
in the country,” he informed.
Seattle-based AltAir Fuels had entered into
a Memorandum of Understanding with 14 major airlines
from the United States, Mexico, Canada and Germany,
led by the Air Transport Association (ATA), to
negotiate the purchase of up to 750 million gallons
of renewable jet fuel and diesel derived from
camelina and produced by AltAir Fuels. The participating
airlines include, American Airlines, Air Canada,
Alaska Airlines, Atlas Air, Delta Air Lines, FedEx
Express, Hawaiian Airlines, Jet Blue Airways,
Lufthansa German Airlines, Mexicana Airlines,
Polar Air Cargo, United Airlines, UPS Airlines,
and US Airways.
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