Air Force Picks Honeywell Unit for Biofuels
by Joe Cogliano (Dayton Business Journal) A division of Honeywell International Inc. is being tapped by the U.S. Air Force to expand the domestic supply of biofuels.
On Thursday, the Defense Department announced Des Plaines, Ill.-based UOP LLC was awarded a $17.3 million contract to help create an economically viable refinery for what’s known as advanced drop-in biofuels.
The deal is structured as a Technology Investment Agreement — requiring bidders to share in at least half the cost — and falls under the Defense Production Act, which is meant to ensure domestic production capability for technology items that are essential to national defense.
Air Force Research Laboratory at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton is overseeing the 15-month contract. Honeywell also has a facility in the Dayton region.
…AFRL also recently unveiled a new Assured Aerospace Fuels Research Facility at Wright-Patt. It is being billed as a highly-versatile, cutting edge facility designed to help fill a much-needed gap in the fuel research effort, allowing government, industry and academia researchers to produce the optimum quantities of fuel needed to perform laboratory research without resorting to full-scale production efforts. The facility is capable of producing between 10 to 50 gallons of alternative fuels per day, depending on the type. READ MORE
