Commercial-scale biorefinery starts to produce renewable fuels with Honeywell UOP Technology in California

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AltAir Fuels is a renewable fuels company headquartered in Paramount (CA, USA) that was established in 2013 in order to produce low carbon fuels and chemicals derived from sustainable feedstock. For its first commercial project, AltAir has partnered with Alon Energy USA to revamp portions of a petroleum refinery in Paramount (near the Los Angeles International Airport) and produce renewable transportation fuels for commercial and military use.

AltAir retrofitted the existing refinery through process technology developed by Honeywell UOP. Using its proprietary technology, it can convert a variety of sustainable feedstocks into Honeywell Green Jet Fuel™ and Honeywell Green Diesel™. According to a recent press release from Honeywell UOP, the facility has started to produce commercial amounts of both renewable jet and diesel fuels. The plant at full capacity will convert non-edible natural oils and agricultural waste into approximately 40 million gallons of advanced biofuels and chemicals per year. These advanced biofuels are drop-in replacements that provide the same performance as conventional petroleum-based fuel and require no modification to factory-standard engines, with which they are fully compatible.

Earlier this year, the U.S. Navy's Great Green Fleet began using renewable fuel on regular deployments. The ships are being powered by a blend of renewable marine diesel from AltAir and petroleum-based marine diesel. AltAir Fuels has also created a strategic partnership with United Airlines and World Fuel Services to offer cost-competitive and sustainable biofuels at commercial scale. These aviation companies have agreed to buy 30 million gallons of renewable jet fuel over a multi-year period.

EcofiningTM process

The process developed by Honeywell UOP is called EcofiningTM and it is a versatile solution for producing Hydrotreated Vegetable Oils from sustainable oil-based feedstocks such as used cooking oil, inedible corn oil, tallow, camelina, jatropha or algae (learn more about the HVO biorefineries). The EcofiningTM process consists of two stages of reactions: (1) The triglycerides contained in the biological feedstock are completely deoxygenated in a sour environment with presence of hydrogen and on a proprietary metallic catalyst, producing a mix of linear paraffins, CO2 and water. (2) The product of the first stage is isomerized, always in presence of hydrogen and on proprietary catalyst, in order to branch the linear chains for improving the cold flow properties of the final products.

Figure 1. EcofiningTM process simplified diagram (extracted from Honeywell UOP web page)

The process is compatible with existing refining equipment commonly used in conventional refineries, making it easier for refiners to use existing infrastructure to produce renewable fuels. Two facilities are already operating with this technology:
Facility
Owner
Location
Capacity
Start-up
Norco Biorefinery
Diamond Green Diesel
Norco, Louisiana (USA)
500,000 tons per year
2013
Venice Biorefinery
eni
Porto Marghera, Venice (Italy)
300,000 tons per year
June 2014.
Revamping of existing HDS units.

In addition, Petrixo Oil & Gas plans to use the UOP Renewable Jet Fuel process technology to process approximately 500,000 metric tons per year of renewable feedstocks into Honeywell Green Jet FuelTM and Honeywell Green DieselTM at a new facility in the United Arab Emirates starting in 2017.

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