Honeywell on Wednesday unveiled a new technology that converts agricultural and forestry waste into renewable fuels for sectors that are difficult to decarbonise, including the maritime industry. The process produces marine fuel, gasoline, and sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) from biomass sources such as wood chips and crop residues.
The company said the technology, called Biocrude Upgrading, addresses the cost and feedstock availability challenges in renewable fuel production by converting low-cost residues into lower-carbon fuels at reduced production costs.
“Honeywell’s Biocrude Upgrading technology tackles key challenges in renewable fuel production—cost and feedstock availability—by converting low-cost, locally available residues such as forest and agricultural waste into lower-carbon fuels at reduced production costs,” said Ranjit Kulkarni, Vice President and General Manager, Energy and Sustainability Solutions, Honeywell India.
“The innovation reinforces our commitment to advancing India’s energy transition through scalable and sustainable solutions that help industries meet the nation’s clean energy goals,” he added.
Plant and agricultural waste can be processed into lower-carbon biocrude at collection sites, reducing transport costs. The biocrude can then be refined at larger facilities to produce marine fuel, gasoline, or SAF, providing fuel with performance comparable to conventional products.
Support for industry decarbonisation
The Biocrude Upgrading technology can be delivered as a prefabricated modular plant, helping customers reduce project timelines and site construction requirements.
Honeywell stated that the introduction of this process comes as shipping companies face growing regulatory and customer pressure to cut emissions. Heavy fuel oil, which has been the primary energy source for the maritime sector since the 1960s, contributes about 3 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions.
The new technology complements Honeywell’s existing renewable fuels portfolio, which includes Ecofining, Ethanol to Jet, Fischer-Tropsch (FT) Unicracking, and UOP eFining technologies, all designed to produce lower-carbon fuels from a variety of feedstocks.
