Acelen Renewables becomes 50th site to license Honeywell’s Ecofining™ technology

Honeywell announced Jan. 24 that Acelen Renewables has selected its Ecofining™ technology to help support the efficient production of a targeted 840,000 gallons per day of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) and renewable diesel*.

The fuels will be processed at Acelen’s facility in Bahia, Brazil, from a blend of inedible seed and waste oils.

With this agreement, Acelen Renewables becomes the 50th site to license Honeywell’s renewable fuels technology.

Honeywell’s Ecofining process, which was developed in collaboration with Eni, offers a capital- and cost-effective solution for processing waste fats, oils and greases into renewable diesel and SAF.

Blended with conventional jet fuel, the use of SAF can reduce greenhouse-gas (GHG) emissions by up to 80 percent compared to conventional fossil fuels.

Ecofining has been in use since 2013 for renewable diesel and 2016 for SAF production, making it a proven tool for helping to reduce CO2 emissions, particularly in air travel.

Over the past two years, Honeywell has seen rapidly increasing demand for renewable fuels technologies, including Ecofining.

This growth tracks with international decarbonization efforts—especially in air travel.

Initiatives like the SAF Grand Challenge and SAF tax credit in the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act as well as the European Council’s Fit for 55 package have set in motion key drivers to expand SAF production, accelerating the energy transition and aviation’s journey to net-zero emissions.

“The dramatic growth in demand for renewable fuels technology illustrates that fuel producers are accelerating adoption of solutions to help meet ambitious decarbonization goals,” said Ken West, president and CEO of Honeywell Energy and Sustainability Solutions. “Our 50th license is testament to Honeywell’s leadership in renewable fuels. The milestone follows back-to-back years of solution launches that harness ethanol and eMethanol—to round out one of the largest ranges of feedstock processing technologies on the market.”

Acelen Renewables joins a roster of companies around the world currently licensing Honeywell’s renewable fuels technology, including BP, CVR Energy, Diamond Green Diesel, Eni, Repsol, Total Energies and World Energy.

Of the 50 licenses, eight facilities are already in operation and more than 40 licensed plants are slated to be operational by 2030.

The combined renewable fuels capacity of these plants when functioning to peak efficiency will exceed 21 million gallons per day.

“The addition of Honeywell’s Ecofining process is essential for us to meet our goal of producing 1 billion liters of renewable diesel and SAF per year from 2026 onwards, which will make our company one of the largest biofuel producers in the world,” said Marcelo Cordaro, chief operating officer of Acelen Renewables. “Through our fully sustainable project, [which is] economically, socially and environmentally responsible, we will show the world Brazil’s full capacity to produce the fuel of the future.”

*Editor’s Note: Biobased Diesel Daily® announced in December that Acelen selected Honeywell as its technology licensor and supplier of advanced engineering for the Ecofining™ unit.