Honeywell, a multinational corporation, says enabling sustainable tech solutions is crucial and that it invests more than 60 per cent of its $1.2 billion annual R&D budget in developing solutions and products for its sustainability portfolio.

In its latest quarter, the group posted $8.95 billion in revenue globally. “The company generates about 60 per cent of its revenues from its sustainability portfolio. This portfolio includes products that aim at either enhancing environmental performance or social performance,” said Gavin Towler, vice president, and global CTO, Performance Materials Technologies (PMT).

Sustainable aviation units

According to Towler, the world is moving toward different fuels, but for the next 10 years, the demand for oil will be sustained. “We’ll see growth in both fuels and petrochemicals. But alongside this, sustainable aviation fuel is growing fast. We licensed the first sustainable aviation units in 2014. It started operations in 2016. Until the last two years, there was not much interest from anyone in building other sustainable aviation units.”

Honeywell said it has been developing technologies such as sustainable aviation fuel, for which it has licensed 32 eco-fining units covering 375 thousand barrels per day (KBPD) of capacity in the US, Europe, Asia, Australia, and South America. Additionally, it is also building its first blue hydrogen plant at Wabash Valley Resources - located in West Terra Haute, Indiana.

Interest in hydrogen

Towler added, “We’ll be more interested in hydrogen in the long term, and hydrogen, sustainable aviation fuel and electrification will displace hydrocarbon fuels.” The company says it is equipped to produce green fuels, plastics recycling, hydrogen-oriented technologies, carbon capture, and energy storage.

Based on Honeywell’s study, the energy transition requires investments of close to $2 trillion in the next few years, which is four times the present level.

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