Honeywell 'green' jet fuel used in US Air Force aircraft demonstration
Honeywell’s Green Jet Fuel powered two Air Force F-16 aircraft as part of a Thunderbirds demonstration at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland over the weekend.
During a Joint Services open house at the base on May 20 and 21, two Thunderbird aircraft used a 50/50 blend of Honeywell’s fuel made from camelina and petroleum-based jet fuel.
Camelina, grown and harvested for the Air Force by Sustainable Oils, is an inedible, second-generation plant source for biofuels that does not deplete valuable food, land or water resources. This event marked the first use of an alternative fuel blend by an air demonstration team.
To date, the Air Force has fully certified Honeywell’s green jet fuel on the C-17 Globemaster III, the F-16 and successfully demonstrated the fuel on the A-10 Thunderbolt, the F-15 Eagle and the F-22 Raptor platforms.
Honeywell UOP produced 400,000 gal of green jet fuel from sustainable, non-food sources for the Air Force as part of a joint program for the US Defense Logistics Agency – Energy (DLA-E), it said, for alternative fuels testing and certification. The final fuel delivery under this program took place in early May.
“The Air Force has clearly shown its commitment to diversified sources of energy through biofuels testing and certification,” said Jim Rekoske, vice president and general manager of renewable energy and chemicals for Honeywell’s UOP. “We are proud to have successfully supported each of these efforts and that the Thunderbirds can continue their superior legacy using our green jet fuel.”
The Air Force held its first demonstration flight with the fuel in an A-10 Thunderbolt II in March 2010. It expects to achieve fleet-wide certification by 2013.
Honeywell UOP was the prime contractor or subcontractor on DLA-E contracts to produce almost 600,000 gal of renewable jet fuel for the US Navy and Air Force in October 2009. Working with feedstock partners Sustainable Oils, Solazyme and Cargill, Honeywell UOP process technology was used to produce 190,000 gal of fuel for the Navy and 400,000 gal for the Air Force from animal fats, algae and camelina, the company said.
Honeywell UOP’s green jet fuel process technology was originally developed in 2007 under a contract from the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to produce renewable military jet fuel for the US military.
The process is based on hydroprocessing technology commonly used in today’s refineries to produce transportation fuels. It produces an aviation biofuel that can be blended seamlessly with petroleum-based fuel.
When used as part of as much as a 50% blend with petroleum-derived jet fuel, green jet fuel is a drop-in replacement that requires no changes to the aircraft technology and meets all critical specifications for flight, the company said.
Honeywell’s UOP, a recognized global leader in process technology to convert petroleum feedstocks to fuels and chemicals, is developing a range of processes to produce green fuels from natural feedstocks, it said.
In addition to its green jet fuel process technology, the company has commercialized the UOP/Eni Ecofining process to produce Honeywell Green Diesel from biological feedstocks. It also has a joint venture with Ensyn Corp. in Envergent Technologies, which offers pyrolysis technology for the production of renewable heat, power and transportation fuels.
Comments