UOP breaks ground on biomass-to-fuels facility in Hawaii  

UOP LLC (Des Plaines, Ill; www.uop.com), a Honeywell company, has begun construction in Hawaii of a biofuels demonstration unit that will convert forest residuals, algae and other cellulosic biomass into green transportation fuels. Backed by a $25-million U.S. Dept. of Energy award, the UOP Integrated Biorefinery will upgrade biomass into high-quality renewable gasoline, diesel and jet fuel. The project is part of the DOE’s efforts to help spur the creation of the domestic biofuel industry, drive domestic job creation and reduce U.S. dependence on foreign oil. The project will also support the Hawaii Clean Energy Initiative goal to achieve 70% clean energy by the year 2030. Located at the Tesoro Corp. refinery in Kapolei, the Integrated Biorefinery will be used to demonstrate viability of the technology, test the fuels produced and evaluate the environmental footprint of the fuels and the process technology. The project, which will generate more than 80 new jobs during construction, is scheduled to begin initial production in 2012. It is expected to be fully operational by 2014. Once successfully proven in this demonstration unit, a commercial-scale facility using the same technology could produce as much as 50-million gallons…