‘With green transition, India has the opportunity to become new energy hub’

How do you see Honeywell’s role in sustainable fuels and energy transition globally and in India?

We would like to believe that Honeywell is playing a leader’s role in sustainability as a space, mainly because this has become our mission now. We now have more than 36 units worldwide using our Ecofining technology that can take the bio-based feedstock–vegetable oil, agricultural waste, etc–and convert that into renewable fuels, including SAF.

Which approach and pathways should India focus for scaling up renewable fuels, particularly biofuels?

In India, the feedstock that is required for converting bio-based feedstock into fuels is essentially coming from agricultural waste, and not so much from food-based inputs. So, it is important for us to promote technologies that will not disrupt the food chain. India should focus on using agricultural waste instead of just copying what is happening in the Western world where a lot of vegetable oil or animal fat is available to convert into fuels. So, it is essentially about developing solutions based on feedstocks amenable to the Indian economy.

Technology to manufacture ethanol from agricultural waste is now established and available, and that ethanol can be used for blending with petrol, manufacturing SAF, and even converting to biodiesel, which is something that we are very keen to promote.

How do you view the evolving renewable fuels landscape in India? What are the major challenges?

I believe it is more of an opportunity for India than a problem. With energy transition, India has the opportunity to become a new energy hub, may it be a hydrogen hub, may it be an SAF hub. For example, if India manufactures ethanol in large quantities, and then converts it into SAF, a lot of SAF can be exported. It aligns well with Make in India and the country’s goal of becoming sustainable, and it will lead to more foreign exchange earnings, among other benefits.

As for challenges, I think the technology and scaling up hurdles are largely over. It’s now time for a mindset change. That’s the challenge and that’s where we need constant interaction among the players in the ecosystem–government, regulatory bodies, feedstock suppliers, and those who will produce renewable fuels. The biggest challenge is to bring all of them together and come up with India-specific policies so that everybody moves in the same direction.

SAF has become a buzzword in aviation globally. You and a few other players have technologies to convert alcohols like ethanol and isobutanol to SAF (alcohol to jet, or ATJ, pathway). Do you believe it is the best pathway for India?

Absolutely. We are big advocates of that as there is ample availability of agricultural waste, which can be used to produce ethanol. I am confident that we can scale it up. At Honeywell UOP, we have the expertise and experience of commercially scaling up a chemistry. We also believe it can provide an impetus to India’s large agricultural sector. It will be a dream come true if we are able to produce sustainable fuels, while also having a positive impact on farmers by providing them avenues to sell agricultural waste, or produce more ethanol.

What about other competing pathways for manufacturing SAF?

We are in the journey of disrupting the old fuels and bringing in new types of fuels, which are bio-based. And at Honeywell, we believe that everybody is invited to the party. There could be different ways of achieving the same goal, the paths could be different. But two things are going to be important. One, the technology has to be relevant and working properly. And secondly, it needs to be economically viable to be scaled up for commercial production. That involves optimising the costs–capital expenditure as well as operational expenditure. Whoever cracks these codes is likely to do well.

Public sector refiners like IOCL (Indian Oil Corporation) and MRPL (Mangalore Refinery & Petrochemicals) are working with other partners for SAF units. Are you in talks with Indian companies for SAF plants?

Yes, we are talking to very similar stakeholders. We believe that this should be more of a collaboration than a competition, because we have to ensure that the best technology survives, thrives, and grows. We are focusing on scalability and we are talking to the usual suspects. But I don’t want to take names. They are asking us for proposals and want to discuss the nitty-gritty.

And these usual suspects would mainly be Indian refiners?

Right now, they would be the ones because they know how to tackle such processes and would already have a lot of the required infrastructure.

But don’t be surprised if there are totally new disruptors who come in. For example, a lot of industries with a big carbon dioxide (CO2) footprint, like the steel industry, are thinking of capturing that CO2 and making use of it rather than sequestering it. So already, we are in talks with some steel makers who want to utilise the CO2 by converting it into methanol, and methanol into SAF. In fact, recently we got a contract to build the world’s largest methanol to olefins and methanol to SAF plant in North America from a company called HIF.

But Honeywell’s methanol to SAF pathway does not yet have ASTM certification, the popular global standard for SAF. By when do you expect to receive it?

We hope to get it certified in seven to eight months. We don’t see any huge technological challenge to that and it’s a matter of time.

What is the best way forward for India when it comes to SAF and other renewable fuels, incentives or mandates?

This is something that the policymakers will have to decide. Sometimes, it’s good to see incentives first, and then mandates because incentives will give a little bit of momentum initially. So, start with the right type of incentives because people have to try the technology, they have to believe in it, and once they know it is working, then you can slowly shift to make it compulsory. And one can have a policy framework where the bigger companies may have lesser incentives while the smaller companies may have more.

I see a significant role for mandates as well. Unless and until you push everybody, there will always be laggards. While there are always going to be thought leaders who will adopt it first and therefore take that leap of faith, we don’t want them to suffer, just because others are laggards.