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Feeding the global decarbonization of aviation

Feeding the global decarbonization of aviation

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Pradeep Chakraborty
New Update
Decarbonization

At the Honeywell conference in Chicago, USA, Kevin O'Neil, Senior Business Leader, Renewable Fuels, Honeywell, said that mandates are limited today, but coming in the EU. ICAO CORSIA program reduced international aviation emissions by 50% by 2020. Aviation fuel demand will rise from 7 million BPD in 2023, to 9 million BPD by 2025.

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SAF is the no. 1 topic in renewable fuels project. US DoE is targetting 3 billion gallons SAF by 2030, and 35 billion by 2050. The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) blender tax credits (BTC) and clean fuel production tax credit (CPTC) will be up to $1.75/gallon.

Commercial renewable aviation biofuels are now a reality! From 2016, United Airlines became first commercial airline in the USA to use renewable jet fuel on regularly scheduled flights from LAX.

We also have UOP renewable technology solutions. There are renewable naptha, sustainable aviation fuels (SAF), renewable diesel (RD), etc. There are also partial renewable LPG, partial renewable gasoline, and partial renewable diesel. These are part of the UOP Distillate Unionfiling process, UOP Unicracking, and UOP FCC coprocessing.

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In the path to global SAF adoption by livestock, FOG/Lipid, Ethanol, biomass, and CO2 (e-fuel) are main. SAF as percent of total jet will increase to 31% by 2040. It was at 1% in 2022, and will rise to 3% in 2025, 11% by 2030, and 22% by 2035.

Honeywell UOP is the proven licensor of renewable fuels. We have eight operating plants, including three customers expanding their facility with UOP. The UOP Ecofining process can be designed to produce renewable H2, and LPG as byproducts, or 100% renewable naptha.

Lipid feed supply for SAF (ecofiling) saw 0.8 million barrels per day were used for renewable fuels in 2019. 50% growth is expected by 2050. Majority of incremental use will be for SAF. We also have alcohol to jet feul technology, by using ethanol or other alcohols as the basis for multi-step conversion to jet/diesel fuel. There are announcements made by Honeywell, United Airlines, and Alder Fuels. CO2 is challenging, but can be improved. Expanding the feedstock sources is vital for long-term decarbonization.

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UOP's approach to ethanol conversion to jet includes high yields to jet and diesel from UOP's ETJ process. We can reduce GHG by 80% on total lifecycle basis. It is also compatible with hydrous or ASTM D4806 anhydrous ethanol. Advanced heat integration allows lower carbon intensity route. Everything is based on commercially demonstrated technologies.

We are fueling the future for cleaner skies. You can take off with UOP's ethanol to jet (ETJ) process technology, the next generation of renewable fuels. CO2 to jet is a new approach. We have the pathway from biomass to renewable fuels. The RTP unit is close to the biomass source. We can produce same finished products with renewable fuels.

decarbonization
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