Emerald Biofuels licenses UOP/Eni Ecofining process to produce 85M gallons per year of renewable diesel from biofeedstocks
09 May 2012
UOP LLC, a Honeywell company, signed an agreement to license technology to Emerald Biofuels LLC to produce Honeywell Green Diesel at a facility in Louisiana.
Emerald is expected to use Honeywell’s UOP/Eni Ecofining (earlier post) process technology to produce 85 million gallons per year of Honeywell Green Diesel from non-edible, second-generation oils and animal fats. Honeywell Green Diesel is a drop-in replacement for traditional diesel. Chemically identical to petroleum-based diesel, Honeywell Green Diesel can be used in any proportion in existing fuel tanks without infrastructure changes.
Emerald is an Illinois-based transportation fuel company that focuses on building renewable diesel refineries that produce environmentally friendly transportation fuels at prices competitive to petroleum-based fuels. International Alliance Group (IAG) will provide engineering, procurement and construction services for the project.
Honeywell’s UOP and Eni SpA jointly developed the UOP/Eni Ecofining process, which uses hydroprocessing technology to convert non-edible natural oils and animal fats to Honeywell Green Diesel. The fuel offers improved performance over biodiesel and petroleum-based diesel, including a high cetane value of 80 compared with a cetane range of 40 to 60 found in diesel at the pump today.
Honeywell Green Diesel offers high energy density, excellent performance at cold or warm temperatures, and features up to an 80% lifecycle reduction in greenhouse gas emissions compared with diesel from petroleum. Honeywell Green Diesel offers value as a blending stock for refiners seeking to enhance existing diesel and to expand the diesel pool.
In addition to the UOP/Eni Ecofining technology, since launching its renewable energy and chemicals business in 2007, UOP has commercialized the UOP Renewable Jet Fuel Process under a contract with the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to produce Honeywell Green Jet Fuel for the US military. It produces an aviation biofuel that can be blended seamlessly with petroleum-based fuel.
In 2008, Honeywell’s UOP partnered with Ensyn Corp. to form a joint venture, Envergent Technologies LLC, to offer RTP rapid thermal processing technology and equipment for the production of renewable heat, power and transportation fuels. RTP technology is currently in use in seven commercial biomass processing plants in the US and Canada.
I really, really want one of these companies to be successful, but they never give realistic targets for the cost in the real world.
Apparently, that is much harder than they want to believe. Here is one example where they were bragging to anyone that would listen but then the reality was: $29/gallon
http://www.technologyreview.com/energy/40387/?p1=A2
Posted by: DaveD | 10 May 2012 at 10:24 AM