World Energy Secures Permits; Will Completely Convert Its Southern Calif. Refinery to Create North America's Largest, World's Most Advanced Sustainable Aviation Fuel Hub

News provided by

Apr 22, 2022, 13:30 ET

– The world's first SAF producer assembles Air Products, Honeywell, and leading energy transition innovators to team up to pioneer the frontier of low-carbon aviation in Southern Calif. for replication globally –

– Two-billion-dollar project will yield 340-million-gallons of annual capacity; collaboration to advance green hydrogen transition –

– Facility will integrate innovative renewable feedstocks, breakthrough production technology, and networked pipeline distribution to enable clean local ground and air transportation –

PARAMOUNT, Calif., April 22, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- World Energy, a carbon-net-zero solutions provider, today announced that it secured the critical permits required to increase output by 700 percent at its Southern California renewable fuels production facility, the world's first and North America's only commercial-scale Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) production site. The low-carbon fuels innovator, which has produced SAF at a commercial scale since 2016, is teaming up with Air Products, the world's largest hydrogen producer, and Honeywell, an innovator in SAF technology, to build the most technologically advanced production and distribution hub ever constructed. Together, along with more than 15 other leading firms, the companies are collaborating to speed up and expand the decarbonization of aviation. Global air transport leaders and those heavily reliant on aviation are now entering into long-term agreements to secure access to the plant's current and expanding supply to make carbon-net-zero aviation real.

"World Energy's transformation of its facility to producing 100 percent sustainable fuel is good for the planet and it's good for our City," said Paramount Mayor Vilma Cuellar Stallings. "Locally, the refinery will never again deal with petroleum products, which of course will be healthy for our residents. We welcome this change."

The former oil refinery site will never again refine fossil fuels. By 2050 the facility will produce fuels that will displace over 76 million metric tons of carbon dioxide, the equivalent of 3.8 million carbon-net-zero flights from Los Angeles to New York. It will also significantly reduce the fine particulate emissions in the trucks, trains, and planes powered by World Energy's fuels. Air Products and World Energy will collaborate on innovations to transition to green hydrogen inputs, further reducing the carbon intensity of the fuels it produces.

The Los Angeles County Economic Development Corporation (LAEDC) Institute for Applied Economics (IAE) conducted a multiregional economic impact analysis and estimates that between 2019 and 2024, World Energy's ongoing operations and conversion will contribute $19.2 billion to the U.S. economy and generate more than 18,000 jobs.

"Getting real about net-zero aviation, is going to require the mobilization of expertise and resources far beyond anything that has come before," said Gene Gebolys, CEO, World Energy. "We are pulling together the very best companies in the world with the expertise, experience, commitment, and focus to collaborate on pushing the frontier of what can be done to decarbonize aviation today while building a platform for what needs to be done to decarbonize flight entirely by 2050. This is an immense undertaking. But it must be done, and it requires that we move with the speed, coordination, and determination befitting the problem we are working to tackle."

"This project is another pioneering moment in Air Products' commitment to help support the energy transition. We are already building the world's largest green hydrogen facility with our partners in Saudi Arabia and the world's largest blue hydrogen facility in Louisiana. Now we are teaming up with World Energy to build North America's largest SAF facility," said Seifi Ghasemi, Air Products' Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer. "We are very pleased to be working with World Energy, enabling another U.S. megaproject that will provide measurable sustainability benefits and advance California's decarbonization goals by producing a renewable fuel to meet the growing demands of the aviation industry."

The world's first and North America's only commercial-scale SAF facility was launched in Paramount, using Honeywell UOP's Ecofining^TM technology in 2013, with production commencing in 2016. World Energy and Honeywell have continued to collaborate and have strengthened this critical relationship with a technical development agreement to advance the next generation of carbon reduction technologies. This collaboration will further innovations integrating more efficient SAF production processes, new process pathways using new sustainable feedstocks, low-carbon hydrogen, and carbon capture technologies.

"As one of the pioneers of the SAF market with Honeywell UOP Ecofining technology, our long-term engagement with World Energy continues to help transform the industry and support the goal of a significantly reducing CO2 emissions," Bryan Glover, President and CEO, Honeywell UOP. "Our participation in this project will not only allow World Energy to build one of the most technologically advanced SAF production and distribution hubs globally, it also helps accelerate the energy transition of the aviation industry."

About Sustainable Aviation Fuel
SAF is a 100 percent sustainable fuel made entirely of renewable resources and contains no fossil-based feedstock. It is not co-processed with fossil fuel in traditional oil refineries, and its carbon attributes comply with all state and U.S. federal regulations for advanced biofuels. Its lifecycle carbon emissions are currently up to 85 percent lower than conventional jet fuel. It is currently approved at a 50/50 blend level with conventional jet fuel for commercial use. World Energy is collaborating with other industry leaders to gain approval for pure 100 percent renewable SAF use in regular commercial aviation to enable a future of carbon net-zero fossil-free flight. SAF allows aviation to be powered by the sun's energy, captured by organic materials, and converted into high-energy-density liquid fuels.

About World Energy
World Energy is a low-carbon solutions provider focused on helping the world's leading companies make their carbon net-zero commitments real. The company is delivering ever better solutions at an ever-greater scale to efficiently cut, accurately account, and transparently report carbon emissions reductions in operations based in air and on water, rail, and road. Founded on Earth Day in Boston in 1998, the company has been commercializing, producing, and distributing low-carbon fuels for over two decades. www.worldenergy.net.

About Air Products
Air Products is a world-leading industrial gases company in operation for over 80 years. Focused on serving energy, environment and emerging markets, the Company provides essential industrial gases, related equipment and applications expertise to customers in dozens of industries, including refining, chemical, metals, electronics, manufacturing, and food and beverage. Air Products is also the global leader in the supply of liquefied natural gas process technology and equipment. The Company develops, engineers, builds, owns and operates some of the world's largest industrial gas projects, including: gasification projects that sustainably convert abundant natural resources into syngas for the production of high-value power, fuels and chemicals; carbon capture projects; and world-scale low- and zero-carbon hydrogen projects supporting global transportation and the energy transition.

The Company had fiscal 2021 sales of $10.3 billion from operations in over 50 countries and has a current market capitalization of about $55 billion. More than 20,000 passionate, talented and committed employees from diverse backgrounds are driven by Air Products' higher purpose to create innovative solutions that benefit the environment, enhance sustainability and address the challenges facing customers, communities, and the world. For more information, visit airproducts.com or follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook or Instagram.

Honeywell (www.honeywell.com) is a Fortune 100 technology company that delivers industry-specific solutions that include aerospace products and services; control technologies for buildings and industry; and performance materials globally. Our technologies help aircraft, buildings, manufacturing plants, supply chains, and workers become more connected to make our world smarter, safer, and more sustainable. For more news and information on Honeywell, please visit www.honeywell.com/newsroom.

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements: This release contains "forward-looking statements" within the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements are based on management's expectations and assumptions as of the date of this release and are not guarantees of future performance. While forward-looking statements are made in good faith and based on assumptions, expectations and projections that management believes are reasonable based on currently available information, actual performance and financial results may differ materially from projections and estimates expressed in the forward-looking statements because of many factors, including risk factors described in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended September 30, 2021. Except as required by law, we disclaim any obligation or undertaking to update or revise any forward-looking statements contained herein to reflect any change in the assumptions, beliefs or expectations or any change in events, conditions or circumstances upon which any such forward-looking statements are based.

SOURCE World Energy