Hopes To Gain Wider Acceptance Of Renewable Jet Fuels

Both Honeywell and Boeing have flown airplanes to the Paris Air Show using biofuel blends, and Honywell says it's flight utilizing the company's G450 was the first major test of renewable fuel on a trans-Atlantic flight by a business jet.

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The company said using the 50/50 blend of a camelina-based biofuel and traditional petroleum-based jet fuel saved 5.5 metric tons of carbon emissions over the 7 hour flight, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal. The company said that the flight was intended to showcase the effectiveness of biofuels, as well as further its efforts to license production technology to allow its "Green Fuel Blend" to be produced by major refiners.

The ASTM has recently set technical standards and approved the use of renewable jet fuel, which could lead to broad commercialization of the product. There have been more than a dozen commercial and military tests of biofuel, which Honeywell biofuel official Jim Rekoske says brings the U.S. "one step closer to commercial use" of plant-based jet fuel.

Honewell says its "Green Jet" program calls for biofuels to be a drop-in replacement for traditional fuels, requiring no engine modifications. The company says it has produced over 700,000 gallons of renewable fuel from camelina, jatorpha, and algae.

FMI: www.honeywell.com