Honeywell has recently announced that its latest hydrocracking technology is capable of producing sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) from biomass in a less carbon-intensive way compared to traditional fossil-based jet fuels. The company’s new Fischer-Tropsch Unicracking technology extracts liquids and waxes from processed biomass, such as crop leftovers, wood waste, or food scraps, and converts them into SAF that meets aviation standards with a lower environmental impact.
Ken West, the CEO of Honeywell Energy and Sustainability Solutions, emphasized the importance of expanding feedstock options in the aviation industry to allow for the production of SAF from more abundant sources. The company’s technology has already been selected for biofuel manufacturing for DG Fuels, with plans to produce 13,000 barrels of SAF per day once operations begin. This will help address the increasing demand for SAF while facing challenges related to limited supplies of traditional SAF feedstocks.
Honeywell has been producing SAF commercially since 2016 using its eco-fining process and now offers a range of solutions across different feedstocks to meet the growing demand for renewable fuels. Over 50 sites worldwide have licensed Honeywell’s SAF technologies, with refineries expected to have a combined capacity exceeding 500,000 barrels of SAF per day. This expansion will not only reduce costs but also minimize byproduct waste as opposed to other hydroprocessing technologies.