Defining Ecofining—More or Less

Storied aerospace marque Honeywell Aerospace put in a fine showing at 2023’s Paris Air-Show. The North Carolina-based company highlighted a range of initiatives by which it and its industry partners seek to hasten the actualization of a safe, sustainable, and fiscally-stable global aviation sector.

Honeywell president and CEO Mike Madsen set forth: “There is no single silver-bullet to enable the aviation sector to realize its sustainability objectives. But to reach those objectives, we need new technology at almost every stage of a passenger’s journey—from the time they leave their home until they pick up their bags after their return flight. Honeywell has ready-now technologies that help achieve sustainability goals, and we’re developing more. Supported by a regulatory environment that can help drive adoption of these solutions, the global aviation sector is on the right path to a more sustainable future.”

An early proponent of Sustainable Aviation Fuels (SAF) and a pioneer in both the production and propagation of such, Honeywell has plied its considerable resources to initiatives the likes of Ecofining—a single-step process by which underutilized petroleum refining installations are repurposed to convert non-edible natural oils and animal fats to high-yields of Honeywell Green Diesel—a sustainable fuel instantiating improved performance over extant biodiesel and petroleum-based diesel fuels.

The Ecofining process produces diesel with a cetane value of eighty, substantially higher than the forty-to-sixty cetane diesel commonly burned in contemporary diesel engines. Ergo, Honeywell Green Diesel provides better engine performance with fewer emissions and can be blended with cheaper low-cetane diesel to meet transportation fuel standards.

The Ecofining process is used in most one-hundred-percent bio-feed units currently producing renewable diesel, as well as the entirety of the world’s licensed renewable jet-fuel production facilities. In 2023, twenty global Ecofining units licensed by Honeywell process 12 different types of renewable feedstocks into biofuels.

FMI: www.honeywell.com