Emerald will produce the product at a facility in Louisiana. The Louisiana plant will produce around 85 million gallons of green diesel per year from non-edible, second generation oils and animal fats using UOP/Eni Ecofining technology.

This process was jointly developed by UOP and Eni SpA and the resulting fuel offers improved performance over other biofuels and petroleum-based diesel with a cetane value of 80 compared with the usual 40 to 60 found in petroleum diesel currently available. The cetane value is a measure of the combustion quality of the diesel, the higher the cetane value the more efficient the engine operation.

In addition the new fuel offers high intensity energy plus excellent performance in both cold and warm temperatures. It also offers an 80 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions compared to diesel from petroleum.

Unlike biodiesel, Honeywell Green Diesel is considered a ‘drop-in’ replacement for traditional diesel and is chemically identical to petroleum-based diesel. It can therefore be used in any proportion in existing fuel tanks without changing the infrastructure.

Emerald Biofuels LLC is based in Illinois and is a transportation fuels company that specialises in building renewable diesel refineries that produce environmentally friendly transportation fuels at competitive prices. Engineering, procurement and construction services for the project will be provided by International Alliance Group (IAG).

Honeywell UOP is involved in the development of process technology for the refining, petrochemical, and gas processing and hydrogen industries and is particularly involved in technologies to convert natural oils and plant biofuels into usable fuel.