World’s first ethanol-to-sustainable jet fuel plant opens in US
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The facility in Soperton, Georgia will produce about 38 million litres of SAF and renewable diesel per year.
PHOTO: LANZAJET.COM
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SOPERTON, Georgia – The world’s first plant using ethanol to make lower-polluting jet fuel has opened in the United States, a development that Iowa corn growers and biofuel producers say is a wake-up call to move faster to decarbonise.
Illinois-based LanzaJet formally unveiled its US$200 million (S$268 million) facility in rural Georgia at an event on Jan 24 with investors, including Suncor Energy and IAG’s British Airways, as well as US Department of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and local officials.
The plant, which received US government funds, plans to use biofuel made from both traditional raw materials, including American-grown corn, as well as from advanced technologies, LanzaJet chief executive Jimmy Samartzis said in an interview.
Located in Soperton, Georgia, the facility will produce 37.9 million litres of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) and renewable diesel per year.
US President Joe Biden has called for at least 11.4 billion litres of overall SAF production annually by 2030.
The opening prompted Iowa groups to warn that farmers and ethanol makers in the top US corn-producing state are at risk of missing out on the chance to significantly profit from the developing market for SAF.
“No Iowa ethanol plant currently has a carbon intensity score low enough to qualify as an ingredient to make SAF,” according to a statement from the Iowa Renewable Fuels Association and Iowa Corn Promotion Board.
By contrast, Brazil, which mainly makes ethanol from sugarcane, produces over 26.5 billion litres of ethanol with a carbon score expected to qualify for SAF production, the groups said. BLOOMBERG
