CHE.08 – From Fries to Fuel: A Sustainable Production of Aviation Fuel

• Rohit Asokan
• Tim Carlson
• William Isherwood
• Huy Nguyen
• Joshua Ulmilla

In the past two decades, the focus on climate change and reducing harmful pollutants in the world’s atmosphere has become an increasingly important topic among the nation’s top leaders and representatives. To achieve this goal, the movement towards creating and adopting sustainable fuels and methods of production must be implemented to ensure a long-term solution for climate change. The traditional method of obtaining aviation fuel is through the collection of kerosene from crude oil which is a non-sustainable process and contributes to a substantial amount of greenhouse gas emissions. For this project, the goal is to produce sustainable Jet A-1 Spec jet fuel (SAF) from a used cooking oil feedstock. This feedstock will be obtained from used cooking oil through collaboration with designated waste collection companies around Freeport Texas that will collect from local restaurants, businesses, and fast-food locations in the nearby area. This process will not only produce a sustainable substitute for traditional kerosene-based aviation fuel, but also will work to decrease the amount of waste created by restaurants. For our chemical plant the Hydroprocessed Esters and Fatty Acids (HEFA) process will be utilized. This process produces sustainable aviation fuel by hydro processing esters and fatty acids and can be blended with petroleum jet fuel in proportions up to 50%. HEFA fuel properties are comparable to conventional petroleum fuel, however, the fuel created from this process has advantages such as lower aromatic content, lower sulfur content, and potentially lower greenhouse gas emissions. The annual production rate of SAF from our plant is 95,000 barrels. In addition to the SAF product, byproducts of both naphtha and renewable diesel are produced and will be sold to local businesses to offset costs. Implementation of renewable identification numbers (RINs) is essential for the process to produce viable and consistent revenues. This design displays the beneficial and feasible process of a used cooking oil to jet fuel process which can mitigate the dependence on traditional aviation fuel by producing a greener alternative.