Posted by John McHale
DES PLAINES, Ill., 25 April 2010. – UOP LLC, a Honeywell (NYSE: HON) company, announced that Honeywell Green Jet Fuel produced using Honeywell UOP's renewable jet fuel process technology powered a U.S. Navy F/A-18 Super Hornet flight as part of the Navy's efforts to certify the use of alternative fuels in military aircraft.
The F/A-18 Super Hornet, dubbed the Green Hornet by the Navy, was fueled with a 50/50 mixture of Green Jet Fuel made from camelina oil and petroleum-derived military jet fuel. The flight was held at the Naval Air Warfare Center in Patuxent River, Md., and was attended by Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus. This is one of a series of biofuel test flights that will be conducted by the Navy F/A-18 Super Hornet test program and marks the first flight of a supersonic jet with afterburners flying on a biofuels blend.
Honeywell's Aerospace business unit also supplies auxiliary power units, navigation avionics, displays, exterior lighting, wheels, brakes and other mechanical equipment for the F/A-18 Super Hornet.
The fuel was produced by Honeywell's UOP business unit using its Green Jet Fuel process technology under a project for U.S. Defense Energy Support Center (DESC). Honeywell's UOP is producing up to 190,000 gallons of fuel for the Navy and 400,000 gallons for the U.S. Air Force from sustainable, non-food feedstocks, including animal fats, algae, and camelina.
The Navy plans a total of 17 flights as part of the certification program. The Air Force is undergoing similar testing and held its first demonstration flight with an A-10 Thunderbolt II in March. The aircraft also flew with a 50/50 blend of Green Jet Fuel made from camelina and petroleum-derived military jet fuel in both engines.
"These flights are critical to demonstrating the viability of fuels made from non-food, sustainable feedstocks and enabling the certification of Green Jet Fuel for military aircraft," says Jennifer Holmgren, vice president and general manager of UOP's Renewable Energy & Chemicals business. "We have already proven that our technology produces a viable fuel in commercial flight applications and look forward to the results of these certification tests."
Honeywell UOP's Green Jet Fuel process technology was originally developed in 2007 under a contract from the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to produce renewable military jet fuel for the U.S. military.
The process is based on hydroprocessing technology commonly used in today's refineries to produce transportation fuels. It produces an aviation biofuel that can be blended seamlessly with petroleum-based fuel. When used as part of as much as a 50 percent blend with petroleum-derived jet fuel, Green Jet Fuel is a drop-in replacement that requires no changes to the aircraft technology and meets all critical specifications for flight.
Camelina, the biofeedstock that was converted to make the fuel for the Navy test flight, is an inedible plant that grows in conditions where other food crops cannot and is considered a sustainable, second-generation resource because its cultivation and harvesting do not deplete valuable food, land or water resources. Camelina for the Navy demonstration flight was provided by Sustainable Oils.
Honeywell's UOP, a recognized global leader in process technology to convert petroleum feedstocks to fuels and chemicals, is developing a range of processes to produce green fuels from natural feedstocks. In addition to its Green Jet Fuel process technology, the company has commercialized the UOP/Eni Ecofining process to produce Honeywell Green Diesel from biological feedstocks. It has also a joint venture with Ensyn Corp. in Envergent Technologies LLC, which offers pyrolysis technology for the production of renewable heat, power and transportation fuels.
