A feasibility study jointly conducted by Air New Zealand and US-based waste-to-fuel developer LanzaJet has concluded that up to 25% of New Zealand’s domestic aviation fuel needs could be met using sustainable aviation fuel produced locally using woody waste residue as a feedstock. The SAF would be produced through a two-stage process, initially converting the wood to ethanol using the CirculAir carbon recycling technology developed by LanzaJet and its sibling, LanzaTech, then using LanzaJet’s alcohol-to-jet (AtJ) pathway to transform the ethanol to SAF. The airline’s Chief Sustainability and Corporate Affairs Officer, Kiri Hannifin, said the findings were “very positive for a country that is heavily reliant on long-haul aviation and trade and currently imports 100% of its jet fuel.” The NZ study result closely followed the announcement of a carbon-to-SAF partnership between LanzaTech and emerging Australian SAF producer Wagner Sustainable Fuels, and another in Japan between LanzaTech and the SEKISUI Chemical Company to convert municipal and industrial waste to ethanol then SAF.

The New Zealand study was co-funded by the airline and its majority shareholder, the New Zealand government, supported by Scion, a Crown research institute focused on forestry and wood products; fuel and infrastructure company Z Energy; and Wood Beca, a project engineering business specialising in oil, gas and wood, to explore opportunities for local production of non-fossil fuels for aviation.

Announcement of the report’s preliminary conclusions followed a contentious decision by the airline to scrap its 2030 carbon emissions reduction targets and withdraw from the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi), citing challenges to the availability of new, lower-emission aircraft types and alternative fuels, and support from governments and regulators for decarbonisation initiatives.

“Alternative jet fuel such as SAF is currently the only real tool available to address carbon emissions from long-haul aviation, so it’s crucial for connecting New Zealanders, tourists and exporters with the rest of the world,” said Hannifin.

“There is already significant international momentum and, in our view, New Zealand shouldn’t get left too far behind, or we risk seeing the flow of capital go elsewhere, or our valuable raw materials being swooped up by other markets for their own SAF.

“The right settings and regulatory environment will be important as New Zealand considers homegrown SAF because it’s the only way to secure the necessary global investment.”

LanzaJet CEO Jimmy Samartzis welcomed initial results from the feasibility study and said a second phase was now underway to investigate the potential for household and commercial waste to also be used as fuel feedstock.

“Building a new industry requires developing a broad ecosystem for SAF in New Zealand, anchored in technology and supported by policy, capital and demand to help attract funding and make it at a price airlines can afford,” said Samartzis.

CirculAir, the SAF production approach assessed in the study, combines the technologies of LanzaTech and LanzaJet to convert waste carbon into SAF.

“The process starts with LanzaTech’s carbon recycling technology which, in this case, converts gasified forestry residues into ethanol. LanzaJet then converts that into SAF using its proprietary and industry-leading alcohol-to-jet (AtJ) technology,” explained Samartzis.

“Turning woody biomass into SAF is technically possible in New Zealand and with the right settings, is an industry that can get started fairly quickly. We look forward to completing additional analysis into what other feedstocks, such as municipal household and commercial waste, could be used to make domestic SAF production an even more attractive option.”  

Soon before the conclusions were announced from the first phase of the New Zealand study, LanzaTech and LanzaJet signed an agreement to test their CirculAir carbon-to-SAF technology at ‘The Project,’ the Brisbane SAF refinery of Wagner Sustainable Fuels.

The first stage of this process uses LanzaTech’s carbon recycling technology to convert industrial emissions or municipal solid waste into ethanol, which is then transformed into drop-in SAF using LanzaJet’s AtJ technology.

The CirculAir platform is designed to unlock carbon from a multitude of waste-based resources, providing flexibility for feedstock conversion.

“The combination of LanzaJet’s leading SAF solution with the front end of LanzaTech’s proven and commercialised carbon recycling technology makes it possible to create a domestic SAF supply in Australia using local renewable waste sources, further supporting the country’s energy security while also working to protect its natural environment,” said LanzaJet’s Samartzis.

Matt Doyle, CEO of Wagner Sustainable Fuels, said the CirculAir partnership with LanzaTech and LanzaJet would advance his company’s Brisbane refinery and accelerate the development of a SAF industry in Australia, where multiple projects are now being scoped or progressing towards final investment decision.

“Together, these proven technologies can help us realise Australia’s first, fully integrated SAF production facility and provide a path to producing domestic fuel at scale,” he said.

The Wagner Project has also secured backing from both Boeing and the Queensland state government.

Earlier this year, LanzaJet also signed a licensing agreement with Jet Zero Australia, which is developing an AtJ SAF plant in Townsville, North Queensland, and will use agricultural biomass including sugar cane waste as a feedstock for the fuel.

Jet Zero, whose investors include Qantas, Airbus and Japanese petroleum group Idemitsu Kosan, plans to produce up to 102 million litres of SAF and 10 million litres of renewable diesel per year. It is targeting production from 2027. 

LanzaTech has also partnered with Japan’s SEKISUI Chemical Company to jointly develop a platform which transforms syngas from municipal and industrial solid waste into ethanol, and then into products including sustainable aviation fuel.

Under a master licence agreement, SEKISUI plans to build multiple facilities across Japan, with the first expected to produce 10 to 12 kilotons of ethanol annually for use not only in SAF but also chemicals and materials including packaging and apparel. The deal extends a decade-long partnership between the two companies to divert garbage away from landfill or incineration for recycling as product feedstock.

Japan is active in recycling and decarbonisation and is one of the leading climate action markets in the Asia-Pacific region. Among its initiatives, it has mandated that by 2030 SAF will make up 10% of all fuel used by its domestic airlines and departing international carriers.

The expanded partnership between LanzaTech and SEKISUI follows the successful operation of a pilot plant established in 2017 in Yorii-machi, Saitama, and the completion in 2022 of a demonstration plant in Kuji City, Iwate, with annual capacity to convert approximately 400 tons of municipal solid waste to ethanol for further processing.

Each year, said the companies in their announcement, Japan generates some 56 million tons of combustible waste, which ordinarily would be sent to landfill facilities, “emitting methane, a greenhouse gas 23 times more potent than carbon dioxide,” or incinerated for power generation, emitting embedded carbon into the atmosphere.

Using the LanzaTech technology, unsorted combustible waste is gasified, then converted into ethanol through the use of a microbial catalyst and gas fermentation technology which requires no chemical catalysts, heat or pressure.

“We are pleased to expand our collaboration with longstanding partner LanzaTech, whose waste-to-ethanol technology is converting municipal solid waste into a valuable resource and providing an innovative solution to ending our reliance on fresh fossil fuels,” said Futoshi Kamiwaki, SEKISUI Representative Director and Senior Managing Executive Officer.

LanzaTech CEO Dr Jennifer Holmgren said the extended agreement also progressed her company’s vision for a circular carbon economy.

“We are grateful to SEKISUI for their commitment to scaling carbon recycling across Japan,” said Holmgren, “and for being at the forefront of developing a global blueprint for other countries and businesses to follow on how to access and utilise the carbon locked in local garbage.

“Our continued collaboration with SEKISUI is setting the groundwork for providing municipalities with a platform that reduces waste, captures carbon, generates valuable feedstocks and, importantly, creates jobs.

Photo: Air New Zealand

Tony Harrington

Correspondent

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French biomass to clean fuels technology company Haffner Energy has signed an agreement with Icelandic green hydrogen startup IdunnH2 to provide biogenic carbon for a 65,000 tonnes per year e-SAF facility located near Keflavik International Airport that IdunnH2 is developing. To create e-SAF, the facility will combine green hydrogen from Iceland’s renewable power grid with biogenic carbon from Haffner Energy’s patented biocarbon gasification technology. While the country has good access to renewable power, sourcing recycled carbon, ideally from a biogenic source, is a challenge as it is a costly gas to capture, transport and store. Haffner’s innovation supplies solid biocarbon – also known as biochar, a byproduct of its biomass thermolysis technology – and gasifying it onsite, which the company claims fundamentally changes the costs of e-SAF production.

“Biocarbon is far easier and cheaper to transport and store than CO2, which will make many e-SAF projects economically viable,” commented the company’s co-founder and CEO Philippe Haffner.

Added Marcella Franchi, Head of SAF at Haffner Energy: “We are excited to embark on this e-SAF project with IdunnH2 in Iceland, an ideal location for competitive hydrogen production. This agreement bridges the technological and geographical gap, paving the way for competitive e-SAF production with innovative technology.”

IdunnH2’s 300MW e-SAF facility in Helguvik is scheduled to start production in 2028, with green hydrogen coming from wind, geothermal and hydropower, and the SAF blended onsite with conventional jet fuel.

The partners say the production aligns with the EU’s SAF mandate and will supply the equivalent of 15% of Iceland’s projected total jet fuel demand in 2028 and allow airlines at Keflavik Airport to exceed the 2030 blending requirement. Icelandair has already committed to using up to 45,000 tonnes of SAF from the facility.

“The agreement with Haffner Energy will help us direct Iceland’s renewable power onto its aircraft fleet, to not only decrease emissions but also reduce the country’s import dependence, improve air quality around Keflavik Airport and bolster energy security,” said IdunnH2’s co-founder and CEO Audur Nanna Baldvinsdóttir.

Haffner Energy’s biomass thermolysis technological process produces renewable gas, renewable hydrogen and renewable methanol, as well as converting organic waste into sustainable aviation fuel. Its SAFNOCA technology allows the conversion of solid biomass residues or wastes into hydrogen-rich syngas that can be processed through the alcohol-to-jet (ATJ) or Fischer-Tropsch pathways.

The company is using its biomass agnostic technology to develop its own SAF production project at Paris-Vatry Airport, which will have an initial capacity of 30,000 tonnes of SAF per year, with the potential to triple future production. In June, it announced a collaboration with LanzaJet under which syngas produced by SAFNOCA will be converted into ethanol using LanzaTech’s carbon recycling technology and then into SAF using LanzaJet’s ATJ technology.

Photo: Keflavik International Airport

Christopher Surgenor

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A slew of new sustainable aviation fuel initiatives have been announced in the US, including major supplies for United Airlines and JetBlue at their respective hubs in Chicago and New York, Airbus investing in emerging SAF producer LanzaJet and UK start-up Firefly Green Fuels partnering with US biosolids feedstock provider Synagro Technologies to produce low carbon fuel in North America. United will receive up to 1 million gallons (3,000 tonnes) of SAF during 2024 from Finland’s Neste, which has just commissioned a new terminal facility in Houston, Texas, while JetBlue will take at least 1 million gallons from World Fuel Services, potentially by the fourth quarter of this year. European aircraft manufacturer Airbus, meanwhile, has joined a list of big-name investors in LanzaJet, which recently activated the world’s first ethanol-to-SAF facility, Freedom Pines Fuels in Georgia.

By signing for SAF from Neste’s newly-commissioned SAF terminal capacity at ONEOK’s Galena Park Terminal facility in Houston, Texas, United, the world’s third biggest airline, will become the first carrier to buy SAF to power regular commercial flights from Chicago O’Hare, the third busiest airport in the US.

The new capacity at ONEOK’s terminal provides Neste with storage capacity of up to 100,000 tons (around 33.5 million gallons) and is directly connected to the energy pipeline infrastructure in the eastern part of the US. The SAF is expected to be piped to Chicago from August, expanding the availability of Neste’s product to airlines operating from east of the Rocky Mountains to the East Coast.

The deal has been underpinned by the Illinois SAF Purchase Credit, introduced last year for every gallon of the fuel sold to or used by an airline in the state.

“This is what happens when innovation, leadership and policy come together,” said United President Brett Hart, who praised the Illinois Legislature and State Governor JB Pritzker for introducing the incentives which powered the SAF deal at Chicago O’Hare. “While the market for SAF is still in its infancy, there is a huge opportunity today for airlines and policymakers to work together to support its continued growth.”

Alexander Kueper, Neste’s VP, Renewable Aviation Business, said the deal expanded an existing partnership with United, which has already procured Neste SAF in San Francisco and at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport. “We are excited to expand our partnership with United and see our SAF being used at one of the major airports in the US,” he said. “It underlines our commitment to supporting the US aviation industry in its efforts to decarbonise and shows the important role that policy supports like the federal SAF 40B credit and the Illinois SAF Purchase Credit play in accelerating SAF usage.”

JetBlue, too, is ramping up its SAF use, signing with US-based World Fuel Services to provide the first regular supply of blended SAF to New York’s John F Kennedy Airport, pumped in via existing infrastructure including the Colonial Pipeline, America’s largest pipeline system for refined fuel products.

Neat SAF produced by Diamond Green Diesel will be blended with conventional jet fuel by Valero Marketing and Supply Company, then delivered to World Fuel. The airline will acquire at least 1 million gallons of neat SAF, equivalent to 3.3 million gallons of blended fuel, potentially as early as the fourth quarter of this year. It will also have an option to procure up to 4 million gallons more (about 13.3 million gallons blended), though the timeline for the additional fuel was not disclosed.

“This newly available SAF in our hometown is a key signal of the growing engagement by major fuel producers and the potential of SAF to meaningfully address aviation’s carbon emissions,” said Sara Bogdan, the airline’s Managing Director of sustainability and environmental social governance. “By leveraging Valero’s globally recognised expertise in energy markets and logistics, and by utilising existing jet fuel distribution infrastructure, this new, large-scale supply of SAF is set to be a pivotal moment as the industry grows the use of SAF.”

Brad Hurwitz, World Fuel’s SVP, Supply and Trading, welcomed the JetBlue deal to bring SAF to JFK Airport, strengthening the energy company’s ambition to develop a consistent flow of the fuel to the US east coast.

“Today, as a result of state-level programmes incentivising the use of renewable fuels, the majority of domestically supplied blended SAF is delivered into west coast airports,” he said. “Engagement across public and private sectors is needed to expand the supply of SAF to more cities and grow the economies of scale.”

Aircraft manufacturer Airbus has become the latest investor to support US-based SAF producer LanzaJet, strengthening that company’s plans to produce the fuel not only in America but in multiple other markets. To scale its alcohol-to-jet fuel technology, LanzaJet is involved in projects in 25 countries across five continents.

By participating in LanzaJet’s s latest growth equity funding round, Airbus joined a high-profile list of investors and funders including All Nippon Airways, British Airways, Southwest Airlines, French airports company Groupe ADP, Microsoft’s Climate Innovation Fund, sustainable finance group Breakthrough Energy, Shell, Suncor Energy and Japan’s Mitsui & Co and MUFG Bank.

“Sustainable aviation fuels are one of the most important levers available to decarbonise aviation, but their production is still limited,” said Julie Kitcher, Chief Sustainability Officer at Airbus, echoing a consistent and increasing concern in the aviation sector. “Our partnership with LanzaJet demonstrates Airbus ’commitment to work with leading energy technology suppliers to explore innovative production pathways and scale SAF.

“This important partnership with LanzaJet underlines the importance of new technologies and cross-sector collaboration to achieve net zero CO2 emissions by 2050.”

The renewable fuel company uses low-carbon ethanol to create SAF, a process it says will reduce lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions by more than 70% compared to conventional fossil-based jet fuels.  

“LanzaJet intentionally developed a diverse portfolio of strategic investors consisting of leading global companies to ensure we have the ecosystem to scale the SAF industry,” said CEO Jimmy Samartzis. “This important investment from Airbus supports the growth of our company, enabling LanzaJet to scale the production and deployment of SAF to continue working towards meeting aviation’s decarbonisation goals and developing a more sustainable industry.”

LanzaJet is involved in developing a SAF production project – Project Speedbird – in the UK in partnership with British Airways and Nova Pangaea Technologies. In the reverse direction, UK-based start-up Firefly Green Fuels, whose technology converts sewage sludge into high performance fuels including SAF, has announced that Baltimore-headquartered Synagro will be the exclusive supplier of biosolid content in the American market.

Firefly uses as process called hydrothermal liquefaction to chemically transform biosolid waste into biocrude and biochar, the former upgraded to SAF and the remainder to other uses including fertiliser. It recently secured investment funding from a partnership of Boeing and sustainable investment group Clear Sky. 

“This is a perfect partnership with monumental implications,” said Synagro’s CEO, Bob Preston. “We’re pairing Synagro’s expertise in sustainable solutions for biosolids with Firefly’s SAF technology to evolve the circular economy.”  

James Hygate, CEO of Firefly Green Fuels, said there was a huge requirement for SAF in North America, the world’s biggest combined air transport market. “By working together, we can bring operations online quickly, creating new jobs and vast volumes of truly sustainable fuel.”

Photo: United will become the first carrier to power regular commercial flights from Chicago O’Hare with SAF

Tony Harrington

Correspondent

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French global airport operator Groupe ADP has invested $20 million in US-based LanzaJet, an emerging international producer of sustainable aviation fuel. The investment was made by ADP International, a subsidiary of the group, as part of a strategy to transform its airports into energy hubs able to provide electricity, SAF and low-carbon hydrogen. The investment follows LanzaJet’s recent activation of the Freedom Pines facility in Soperton, Georgia, the world’s first ethanol-to-fuel plant, capable of both SAF and renewable diesel production. Groupe ADP is the third company to invest in LanzaJet this year, after the Microsoft Climate Innovation Fund and the world’s biggest low-cost airline, Texas-based Southwest. LanzaJet has global expansion ambitions, with plans to develop plants elsewhere in America, as well as in Europe and Asia. It is also a partner in a new SAF project planned for Queensland, Australia.

The latest investment by Groupe ADP  is part of a plan to supply SAF at competitive prices in France and globally, and specifically to help strengthen LanzaJet’s production and deployment capabilities.  

In addition to the three major airports in Paris – Charles de Gaulle, Orly and Le Bourget – Groupe ADP has management contracts or concessions at 23 more airports, including through investments in Turkey’s TAV Airports and Indian operator GMR Airports. Among the hubs it manages are those in three capitals: Zagreb, Amman and Santiago.

“Low-carbon aviation will not take off without the transformation of airports into energy hubs with a range of low-carbon solutions,” explained Augustin de Romanet, CEO of Groupe ADP. “The airport revolution must happen now, and it is underway in Paris.

“As the world’s leading airport operator, we want to go further and act at source by supporting the production of sustainable aviation fuel, investing directly in LanzaJet, an innovative company able to deploy its technology responsibly around the world, and adapting to local waste to make these new fuels available everywhere.”

Groupe ADP was also the first airport company to invest in the United Airlines Ventures Sustainable Flight Fund, an investment fund established by the world’s third-biggest airline to support the development of SAF. 

LanzaJet is aiming to produce 1 billion gallons of SAF (3.8 billion litres) per year by 2030 and, from the second half of this year, 10 million gallons (38 million litres) per year at its first US facility, Freedom Pines, which uses alcohol produced from feedstocks including municipal waste and forestry and agricultural residues.

“We continue to lay the foundation for building the SAF industry across the entire value chain,” said LanzaJet CEO Jimmy Samartzis. “With this significant contribution from Groupe ADP, a first-of-its-kind in the industry, we will expand LanzaJet’s technology deployment and global growth.

“Together, we will work towards expanding sustainable aviation fuel production and logistics into airports to support airlines and Groupe ADP customers worldwide as the industry works collaboratively to decarbonise.” 

The Groupe ADP investment closely follows another from Microsoft’s Climate Innovation Fund, which also supports LanzaJet’s SAF development and deployment. The two companies will additionally explore how Microsoft’s data and artificial intelligence technology can support LanzaJet’s corporate functions and ethanol-to-SAF process technology.

Details of the latest investment were not disclosed, but in 2022 Microsoft provided a $50 million project finance investment to support construction of the Freedom Pines facility.

“Our continued alignment with Microsoft allows LanzaJet to build our team and capacity at pace to support global deployment of our leading sustainable fuels process technology,” said Samartzis. “Microsoft has played a significant role in making SAF production a reality in the United States, and this investment re-emphasises its urgent commitment to decarbonisation of hard-to-abate sectors.”

Through its investment in LanzaJet, Microsoft can also gain access to SAF and renewable diesel, and SAF certificates (SAFc) from future LanzaJet projects to progress its own 2030 carbon neutrality targets.

“Microsoft is proud to support LanzaJet with our investment in the growth of its sustainable fuel technology business,” said Brandon Middaugh, senior director of Microsoft’s Climate Innovation Fund. “Microsoft is investing in partners who share our commitment to advancing a net-zero economy and who are building the market for critical solutions like SAF and renewable diesel.”

Also this year, LanzaJet has received a $30 million investment from Southwest Airlines, as part of a broader deal in which the two will collaborate on developing a SAF production facility in the US. That project will progress the operations of another energy company in which Southwest is invested, SAFFiRE Renewables, which specialises in converting corn stover to ethanol.

Other investors and funders in LanzaJet include All Nippon Airways, Breakthrough Energy, British Airways, Lanzatech, Mitsui & Co, Shell and Suncor Energy.

Photo: The LanzaJet Freedom Pines plant

Tony Harrington

Correspondent

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US sustainable aviation fuel production startup DG Fuels has selected Fischer-Tropsch (FT) technology co-developed by Johnson Matthey and energy giant bp for its proposed $4 billion SAF plant near the Mississippi River in Louisiana. Subject to approval being received this year, the St. James Parish facility could be in operation by 2028 and would be the largest announced FT SAF production operation in the world, says DG Fuels, with a planned capacity of 13,000 barrels per day, or around 120-135 million gallons of SAF annually. The FT CANS technology is feedstock agnostic although the facility will use plant waste, primarily sugar cane bagasse. Meanwhile, Southwest Airlines has acquired SAFFiRE Renewables, which is utilising technology developed at the Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory to convert corn stover, a widely available agricultural residue feedstock in the US, into renewable ethanol. SAFFiRE is now expected to proceed with developing a pilot plant in Kansas to produce ethanol for conversion into SAF by LanzaJet.

Commenting on its collaboration with Johnson Matthey and bp, DG Fuels’ CEO Michael Darcy said: “Using their co-developed FT CANS technology allows DG Fuels to scale SAF at high volume production and competitive prices for the first time ever. This innovation will take our SAF from the sugar cane fields of Louisiana to cleaner skies all across the world.”

DG Fuels has already secured offtake purchase deals with Delta Air Lines and Air France-KLM, and has a strategic partnership with Airbus to scale up the use of SAF globally. Last November, Air France announced it was investing $4.7 million in the company and the Air France-KLM group acquired an option to purchase up to 25 million gallons (75,000 tons) of SAF annually over a multi-year period beginning in 2029 from the Louisiana plant and a second facility planned in Maine. This is on top of a 2022 offtake agreement by the group for 600,000 tons of SAF from DG Fuels, to be delivered over ten years.

For its first project, the company has earmarked a 3,000-acre (1,200ha) site on the West Bank of St. James Parish for potential development of the near $4bn facility. It says the project is anticipated to create 650 direct permanent jobs, with preference given to local residents and promises to address local needs while protecting the environment and promoting economic prosperity in the area.

To help secure local support for the project, DG Fuels says it has engaged with community members and local government officials to draft a legally binding Community Benefits Agreement that would provide $26 million in funding towards a community centre, a health clinic, paid internships and other benefits. The CBA received support from the St. James Parish Council in February.

The company expects to purchase $120 million of sugar cane waste from local farmers, with nearly one third of this directly benefiting farmers in St. James Parish. This provides an environmentally-friendly and financially attractive alternative to practices where farmers burn the sugar cane trash after harvesting, it adds.

“Our clean facility will have fewer air emissions than a standard US hospital, will have no impact on the Mississippi River and will help to heal our planet,” says the company. “Our fuel made from sugar cane and plant waste is clean, sustainable and created with renewable energy.”

The FT CANS technology converts synthesis gas created in the DG Fuels’ proprietary production process to synthetic crude for further processing into SAF. FT CANS is being used by Fulcrum BioEnergy to convert municipal solid waste into SAF at its Sierra plant.

“Our FT CANS technology solution brings together decades of science and engineering expertise from bp and Johnson Matthey, and this project shows its competitiveness across a range of production scales and feedstock sources the industry needs,” said Noemie Turner, VP Technology Development & Commercialisation at bp. “We’re excited to see the relationship with DG Fuels grow, and we look forward to seeing this project come to fruition.”

Added Christopher Chaput, President of DG Fuels: “With this technology, we will create a product that is responsibly made and can be immediately substituted for conventional aviation fuel with no engine adaptations. This partnership is a significant boost to help the aviation industry reach its climate goals.”

SAFFiRE acquisition

Southwest Airlines first invested in SAFFiRE Renewables during the first phase of the ethanol producer’s pilot project in 2022 and through its newly-launched Southwest Airlines Renewable Ventures (SARV) subsidiary, the airline has now moved to acquire the company. As a result, SAFFiRE is expected to proceed with phase two by developing a pilot plant hosted at Conestoga’s Arkalon Energy ethanol facility in Liberal, Kansas.

“This acquisition marks Southwest’s transition from investor to sole owner of SAFFiRE, expressing our confidence in their technology and its potential to advance our sustainability goals, as well as the goals of the broader industry,” commented the airline’s CEO, Bob Jordan.

SAFFiRE is part of a project supported by the Department of Energy (DOE) to develop and produce scalable renewable ethanol. The Kansas plant will utilise SAFFiRE’s exclusive technology licence from NREL to process 10 tons of corn stover per day into ethanol, with a plan for the ethanol to be converted into SAF by LanzaJet’s alcohol-to-jet (ATJ) technology, which partly owes its development to the DOE’s Pacific Northwest National Lab. LanzaJet was added to the SARV portfolio in February when the airline announced a $30 million investment in the ATJ company.

Another agricultural residue, corn stover is the stalks, leaves and husks of corn plants that is largely left to decompose in the fields after the corn harvest each year. SAFFiRE plans for corn stover to be collected by custom harvesters or by local farmers and processed through a proprietary Deacetylation and Mechanical Refining (DMR) technology developed by NREL, called DMR pretreatment.

“Renewable ethanol is an important feedstock to realising high-volume, affordable SAF, which is a critical part of the journey to net zero emissions,” said Tom Nealon, President of SARV and CEO of SAFFiRE. “We are enthusiastic about the ethanol-to-SAF pathway and SAFFiRE’s potential ability to produce renewable ethanol at a scale that is economically viable.”

Image: Render of the proposed DG Fuels SAF facility on the banks of the Mississippi River in Louisiana

Christopher Surgenor

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Air New Zealand is seeking partnerships with emerging providers of sustainable aviation fuel as part of an expanding programme to reduce its flight emissions through industrial collaboration. Having previously linked with established SAF producers and both aircraft and powertrain manufacturers the airline now wants SAF innovators and start-ups as potential suppliers of low-carbon fuel, which it expects will comprise about 20% of its requirements by 2030. Air New Zealand’s search for SAF partners follows the recent release of a study by Ara Ake, New Zealand’s Future Energy Centre, which examines the merits and disbenefits of future fuels and propulsion systems in reducing domestic aviation emissions. The study concluded that only SAF and green hydrogen could effectively decarbonise New Zealand’s internal flights but the volume of resources needed to produce cleaner fuels might short-change other sectors of the economy. Meanwhile, Australian startup Jet Zero Australia has just secured additional funding to produce SAF from sugar cane waste in Queensland.

Kiri Hannifin, Air New Zealand’s Chief Sustainability Officer, says the airline plays a critical role in connecting its remote homeland to other nations, but must do so more sustainably and quickly. Underpinning its search for innovative new SAF partners it has issued an Opportunity Statement, which provides an overview of its needs based on fleet, network and its sustainability targets and criteria.

“A stable supply of SAF is critical to our ability to reduce carbon emissions,” said Hannifin. “That’s why we’ve taken this novel approach, asking emerging SAF producers from around the world to connect with us and respond to the Opportunity Statement.”

Air New Zealand expects SAF to meet about 20% of its aircraft fuel requirements by 2030, in tandem with “a long term and strategic regulatory package” for which it has long advocated in its Flight NZ0 decarbonisation plan.

The SAF Consortium, a lobby group whose members include Air New Zealand, Z Energy, Scion, LanzaTech and LanzaJet, has argued a local SAF industry could deliver 50% of New Zealand’s aviation fuel demand by 2050, supported by domestically-sourced feedstock, with the balance of SAF imported. It has proposed SAF blending mandates, beginning at 2.5% in 2025 and increasing to 50% in 2050, for both domestic and international flights, and called for government policies including tax credits and grants that prioritise production of SAF over biofuels for road transport.

The national airline says it wants to secure short, medium and long term SAF offtake deals, not only to meet its own needs but also to help drive up demand for the fuels and help mitigate production risks for SAF producers, their investors and financiers.

“Air New Zealand is an ideal airline partner for SAF innovators and producers,” added Hannifin. “We have a mature understanding of SAF, a clear roadmap to meet our targets and the volumes of SAF we need to align with current production capabilities. This Opportunity Statement shares our vision and allows current and future SAF producers to recognise both the opportunity and Air New Zealand’s ambition to become a customer as soon as possible.”

Paralleling Air New Zealand’s global invitation to new SAF producers, Ara Ake, New Zealand’s Future Energy Centre, recently concluded a study of future fuels and propulsion systems to help reduce the country’s domestic aviation emissions. It identified strong technical capabilities for battery-electric, green hydrogen and SAF propulsion, but flagged both enormous production costs and a significant drain on national electricity supplies as major impediments.

The report, led by Ara Ake’s Research and Insights Manager, Dr Jono Barnard, calculated that around 200,000 domestic flights operated each year in New Zealand, roughly 22 per hour, and highlighted a high reliance on aviation because of limited surface transport options outside major cities or provincial centres on the South Pacific nation’s two major islands.    

“Approximately 16 million passengers board these flights to travel a total distance over 80 million kilometres, and flight remains to be among the only options to quickly travel in New Zealand, both intra and inter-island,” said the report. “As a result, New Zealand has among the largest per capita domestic aviation emissions in the world and as easier-to-abate sectors of the economy are decarbonised, domestic aviation’s relative portion of national gross emissions will likely increase.”

Ara Ake concluded that while battery-electric, green hydrogen and SAF power could theoretically deliver significant reductions in domestic flight emissions, only SAF and green hydrogen, or a combination of both, could support all of New Zealand’s internal flights, and even then the large volume of resources required to produce cleaner aviation fuels would deprive other sectors.

The report calculated the average emissions reductions offered by various SAF production pathways, with the current most common, hydro-processed esters and fatty acids (HEFA) at 63%, Fischer-Tropsch biomass conversion at 77%, alcohol-to-jet (AtJ) at 51% and e-SAF, produced with green hydrogen, the most efficient at 85%.

“With e-SAF, in theory there are few constraints on the supply side to produce the required hydrogen and carbon,” explained Ara Ake. “However, the production process is expensive and highly energy-intensive, requiring more than twice the electricity than if domestic aviation was decarbonised with liquid hydrogen and approximately 10 times more than SAF produced using waste biomass.”

In neighbouring north Queensland, Australia, startup renewable energy group Jet Zero Australia has just secured A$29 million ($19m) in additional capital to progress construction of an alcohol-to-jet SAF plant which is targeting annual production of 102 million litres of SAF and 11 million litres of renewable diesel by early 2027. US AtJ producer LanzaJet is also a partner in the project, while the Queensland state government provided a A$760,000 grant to fund a feasibility study of the project.

Investors in the latest funding round included Japanese oil company Idemitsu Kosan, to support not only the Australian development but also the Japanese government’s mandate that by 2030, SAF must comprise 10% of all aviation fuel uplifted in that country. The commitment is the first by Idemitsu in a SAF project outside Japan.

The capital raising was also supported by Airbus and Qantas, both existing investors in the development, called Project Ulysses after a South Pacific butterfly species.

Qantas Group Chief Sustainability Officer Andrew Parker said producing SAF onshore had the potential to create 18,000 jobs and generate A$13 billion in economic benefits annually by 2040, in addition to increasing Australia’s domestic fuel security.

Jet Zero Australia has also entered a 50-50 joint venture with Singapore-based Apeiron AgroCommodities, one of Asia’s largest collectors of used cooking oil, to develop low-intensity feedstocks in Australia to help meet growing demand for renewable fuels.

Tony Harrington

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Southwest Airlines, the world’s fourth-largest carrier, has launched Southwest Airlines Renewable Ventures (SARV), a dedicated platform to invest in sustainable aviation fuel technologies. The Texas-based airline has also announced a $30 million stake in US-based SAF producer LanzaJet, with which it will collaborate to develop a new SAF production plant, largely to support Southwest’s needs. The two companies will work with SAFFiRE Renewables (Sustainable Aviation Fuel from Renewable Ethanol), a technology company in which Southwest has already invested, that converts corn stover to ethanol. LanzaJet has patented an alcohol-to-jet process, through which such feedstocks are converted to ethanol, then SAF, and recently opened the world’s first commercial-scale refinery for this process, Freedom Pine Fuels, in Soperton, Georgia. The proposed new facility with Southwest will also use LanzaJet’s technology to convert SAFFiRE’s cellulosic ethanol into SAF for the airline. 

Like many carriers, Southwest has committed that by 2030, 10% of the jet fuel it uses will be SAF. But the scale of the airline’s fuel requirement is far bigger than most, with a fleet of almost 850 Boeing 737s serving 121 destinations in the US and 10 other countries, and almost 500 new B737 MAX family jets on order to replace older aircraft and further expand operations. In its February 2024 global assessment of airline performance, aviation data group OAG ranked Southwest – the largest low-cost carrier – the fourth busiest operator by flight frequencies, behind American, Delta and United.

“Our launch of SARV and our investment in LanzaJet demonstrate that we are not sitting on the sidelines,” said Southwest CEO Bob Jordan. “Rather, we’re in the game by taking proactive, disciplined steps toward securing affordable SAF for Southwest as we continue to march toward our goal of net zero 2050. 

“We look forward to working with LanzaJet, which is developing potentially important technology that could create more opportunities for Southwest to obtain scalable SAF, a critical component in the success of our environmental sustainability goal to replace 10% of our jet fuel consumption with SAF by 2030.”

The LanzaJet and SAFFiRE Renewables stakes will be aligned by Southwest through SARV, which will collectively manage the airline’s SAF investments, while the core airline will continue to work with multiple SAF producers to procure more of the fuels. 

“SARV’s goal is to help scale SAF through strategic investments, better positioning Southwest to have access to high quality, affordable SAF in accordance with the robust standards of Southwest’s SAF policy,” added Tom Nealon, who is both SARV’s President and SAFFiRE’s CEO. “Through SARV’s investment in LanzaJet, we’re also entering the next phase in the commercialisation of SAFFiRE technology, which is designed to support the production of cellulosic ethanol that can be converted to SAF.” 

Jimmy Samartzis, CEO of LanzaJet, said his company’s ethanol-to-SAF technology “represents the next generation of sustainable aviation fuel and will transform aviation’s ability to meet its 2050 net zero targets.

“We’re proud to be working with Southwest Airlines to build out this industry as well as working with SAFFiRE Renewables to use ethanol made right here in the US,” he added. “Southwest’s equity investment in LanzaJet will help us continue to grow and scale to meet the demands of the aviation industry, while unlocking the significant potential of the US biofuels industry to benefit local communities and support the agriculture industry.”

Development of the new SAF plant in the US will be led by LanzaJet, which will also support Southwest’s aims to commercialise the SAFFiRE corn-to-ethanol technology. The airline will be “the anchor SAF offtaker”.

“The US is an incredibly important market for us,” said Samartzis. “It’s our home, where our technology is originated and scaled, the site of our and the world’s first commercial ethanol-to-SAF plant, and an important opportunity to support the existing US biofuels and ethanol industries with our leading ethanol-to-SAF technology.

“The alignment of Southwest and LanzaJet is a powerful combination that has the potential to integrate the SAF value chain and to double down on the US ethanol, aviation and biofuel industries. Our work together will lead us closer to meeting aviation’s decarbonisation goals by continuing to scale SAF production in the United States, while also tapping into the US ethanol industry’s potential to catalyse the next generation of SAF production.”

SAFFiRE has been collaborating with the US Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory and holds both a licensing agreement and some exclusivity rights to technology to produce cellulosic ethanol from corn stover. Southwest Airlines has matched a grant from the Department to create SAF via the alcohol-to-jet process, through which sugars in the feedstock are fermented to ethanol, which is then deoxygenated to create low carbon fuel. SAFFiRE has previously said it can produce 7.5 billion gallons (27 billion litres) of SAF per year by 2040.

Southwest’s stake in LanzaJet closely follows the energy company’s activation of the Freedom Pines Fuels plant, which is targeting production of renewable fuels including up to 1 billion gallons of SAF by 2030. LanzaJet is also progressing other developments including plans for an alcohol-to-jet plant in Australia with partners including JetZero, Qantas, Airbus and the Queensland state government.

In addition to Southwest, LanzaJet’s investors include British Airways and Japan’s All Nippon Airways, LanzaTech, Shell, Mitsui & Co, Suncor Energy, plus sustainability investors Breakthrough Energy and Microsoft’s Climate Innovation Fund.

Photo (Ashlee D. Smith): Southwest Airlines Boeing 737 MAX-8

Tony Harrington

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Just weeks after commissioning the world’s first refinery to convert ethanol to sustainable aviation fuel, US-based SAF producer LanzaJet and Jet Zero Australia, an emerging biofuels company, have announced a licence and engineering agreement to develop a similar plant in Australia, supported by Qantas, Airbus and the Queensland state government. Subject to a final investment decision, the proposed plant will be built near the coastal city of Townsville, in tropical northeast Queensland, and will use LanzaJet’s alcohol-to-jet technology to convert bioethanol into SAF. Designated as Project Ulysses, after a butterfly species found in the region, the facility will have capacity to produce up to 102 million litres of SAF per year by transforming agricultural waste, including sugar cane, from the region’s farms. Jet Zero’s CEO, Ed Mason, said the partners were targeting late 2026 to early 2027 to commence SAF production.

Qantas has long lobbied Australia’s federal and state governments to support the development of a local SAF industry, not just for environmental reasons but also to help ensure national fuel security and create new employment. It has also urged the national government to develop policy settings to enable SAF to be produced locally and has called for the introduction of blending mandates to help drive up demand as well as bring down prices.

The agreement between Jet Zero and LanzaJet followed a feasibility study in which the Queensland government invested A$760,000 ($491,000) as part of a strategy to attract SAF production to the state and to use local biomass waste for fuel feedstocks. Currently, large volumes of Australian fuel feedstocks flow out of the country to other markets for use in their SAF production programmes.

“North Queensland is in a unique position to provide feedstock for this project, while also being close to the industry partners that are already investing in our state,” said Steven Miles, the Premier of Queensland, who also identified jobs in facility construction, SAF production and the agriculture, aviation, defence and tourism sectors.  

His Minister for State Development and Infrastructure, Grace Grace, also flagged export opportunities through the project, which she said would help Queensland to become the leader of a domestic SAF industry.  

Although the federal government is not a partner in Project Ulysses, it is aiming by 2030 to reduce national carbon emissions by 43% compared to 2005, progressing to net zero emissions by 2050. Reducing flight emissions for civil aircraft and potentially also military craft will be a key focus of the government’s new Aviation White Paper, a broad-based strategy document which will be released this year to guide the industry’s development until 2050.

Jet Zero’s Ed Mason welcomed the LanzaJet agreement, which he said would enable the project to progress towards a final investment decision, while strengthening the partnership not just with the US producer, but also with Qantas and Airbus.

“We believe in building industry, protecting our climate and enabling energy and national security, and our work in Australia delivers that ambition,” added LanzaJet’s CEO, Jimmy Samartzis. “Doing leading edge work requires partnership, and we’re proud to join Jet Zero Australia, the Queensland government, Airbus and Qantas to position Australia as a leader in the region on sustainable aviation fuels, with direct impact in significantly reducing greenhouse gas emissions, enabling job creation and preserving Australia’s environment for generations to come.”

Qantas Group Chief Sustainability Officer Andrew Parker said SAF was “the most significant tool airlines have to reduce their emissions, but it’s only available offshore with no local supply for airlines in Australia.” Australia’s largest airline group, he added, “is investing in technology like this Queensland biofuel refinery to help kickstart a local SAF industry so flights around Australia can be powered to produce lower emissions.”

The airline regularly uplifts SAF in London and has committed to other offtake deals including in the US through a joint purchasing deal brokered by the oneworld airline alliance, of which it is a member. As well, it has just started a major programme to upgrade its narrow and widebody fleets with new Airbus and Boeing jets and commenced retrofitting split scimitar winglets to 23 of its B737-800 jets to improve their fuel efficiency while reducing carbon and other emissions.

“Australia lacks production of sustainable aviation fuel,” added Stephen Forshaw, Airbus Chief Representative, Australia, New Zealand and Pacific. “The challenge to start production is urgent. If we don’t move soon, the opportunity to build a new fuels industry locally will disappear.

“However, we think Australia has every chance of becoming a sustainable fuels superpower, with the right support from government and industry. This is why we’re so supportive of Jet Zero’s mission to become Australia’s first home-grown producer of SAF, and equally of their partnership with LanzaJet that will enable production here.”

Photo: Qantas

Tony Harrington

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LanzaJet has formally opened its pioneering Freedom Pines Fuels ethanol to sustainable aviation fuels facility in Soperton, Georgia. While SAF production currently is based around feedstocks such as waste oils and fats, LanzaJet says its ethanol-based alcohol-to-jet (AtJ) technology is the world’s first viable next-generation SAF technology capable of scaling production to the levels needed to decarbonise aviation. It will use feedstocks that include agricultural waste, municipal solid waste, energy crops and captured carbon from industrial processes. Under construction since 2022, production at Freedom Pines is due to start this quarter and at full capacity the facility will produce nine million gallons of SAF and  one million gallons of renewable diesel a year. Among LanzaJet’s backers and customers for the fuel are All Nippon Airways and British Airways, and is a partner with BA in a SAF production facility project in the UK.

“This is a historic milestone in a long history of firsts for LanzaJet, the United States and the SAF industry globally,” announced LanzaJet CEO Jimmy Samartzis at the opening. “Between feedstock versatility, efficiency and economics that enable scale in the US and globally, we stand ready to meet aviation’s decarbonisation goals established at the United Nations and country ambitions, such as the US SAF Grand Challenge.”

The Grand Challenge, which was launched in 2021 by the Department of Energy, Department of Transportation and US Department of Agriculture, calls for a supply of at least three billion gallons of SAF annually by 2030.

“The Biden-Harris Administration is committed to harnessing the full potential of SAF as we continue to build a strong economy that is sustainable, resilient, competitive and keeps rural places thriving,” said US Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, who attended the opening of Freedom Pines Fuels. “As we transition to SAF, this will help American companies such as LanzaJet corner the market of a valuable, emerging industry, while revitalising rural communities like Soperton with agriculture front and centre in the effort. LanzaJet’s facility will help accelerate the SAF industry and provide new economic opportunities for producers for a more sustainable future.”

LanzaJet, whose technology was developed by LanzaTech and the Pacific Northwest National Lab (PNNL) and claims to reduce GHG emissions by more than 70%, has secured investment both nationally and internationally. Shareholders include International Airlines Group (IAG), LanzaTech, Mitsui & Co, Shell and Suncor Energy, and has attracted investment from the Microsoft Climate Innovation Fund, Breakthrough Energy, British Airways (BA) and All Nippon Airways (ANA).

The Freedom Pines facility is fully funded and has committed offtake agreements for all the fuel produced over the next 10 years. The company says it will have created more than 250 jobs and generate an estimated $70 million in annual economic activity for the local economy.

“As we start up the plant, we will continue to refine our technology, while launching our efforts to advance new sustainable fuels projects globally,” said Samartzis.

LanzaJet will use the same AtJ technology on ‘Project Speedbird’, a second-generation SAF production facility being developed by Nova Pangaea Technologies (NPT) in north-east England. Backed by British Airways and its parent IAG, construction of the new plant is expected to begin in 2025 and, through its patented REFNOVA process, NPT will convert woody and non-food derived agricultural wastes into ethanol, which will then be turned into SAF by the LanzaJet process. The facility, which is planned to be built by 2027 and at full capacity by 2028, will produce 27 million gallons of SAF per year, all of which will be purchased by BA.

Last November, the project was awarded £9 million ($11.2m) in funding under the UK government’s Advanced Fuels Fund competition.

“The Freedom Pines project acts as the blueprint for using LanzaJet’s innovative ethanol to SAF process technology here in the UK, starting with ‘Project Speedbird’, and shows how quickly the US is moving ahead,” said British Airways CEO Sean Doyle.

Added Luis Gallego, CEO of IAG, which has committed to flying on 10% SAF by 2030: “The LanzaJet ethanol-to-jet fuel plant in the US is a demonstration of how government support and investment in green technologies can help make aviation more sustainable. At IAG, we look forward to bringing LanzaJet’s technology to the UK, with Nova Pangaea, to help the UK meet its target of five SAF plants in construction by 2025.”

Photo (LanzaJet/British Airways): Opening of the LanzaJet Freedom Pines Fuel facility in Soperton, Georgia

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International Airlines Group (IAG), parent company of Aer Lingus, British Airways, Iberia, Vueling and LEVEL, is making a £4.4 million ($5.6m) investment in UK cleantech company Nova Pangaea Technologies (NPT), which is developing technology to convert agricultural waste and wood residue feedstocks into second-generation bioethanol that can then be processed into sustainable aviation fuel. IAG says the investment is in addition to an existing commitment of $865 million in future SAF purchases and other investments, with agreements in place for 250,000 tonnes of SAF that represent 25% towards its target of one million tonnes by 2030. The new investment will progress the development of NOVAONE, NPT’s first waste-to-fuel commercial-scale production facility. Construction at a site in North-East England is expected to begin later this year, with the facility producing biofuels by 2025. IAG says it is seeking to secure further UK SAF supply ahead of the UK government’s SAF mandate due to be introduced from 2025.

The mandate requires at least 10% jet fuel to be made from sustainable feedstocks by 2030, representing 1.2 million tonnes (1.5 billion litres) of fuel. IATA estimates total global production in 2022 to have been a maximum of 450 million litres so, points out IAG, global supply would have to triple just to meet the UK’s mandate. Therefore, facilities such as that which NPT is planning to construct will be vital in meeting this demand, says IAG, which is planning to harness NPT’s technology to support the decarbonisation of the other airlines in its group.

“Sustainable aviation fuel is the only realistic option for long-haul airlines to decarbonise, which is why investment in this area is so critical,” commented Luis Gallego, CEO of IAG, the first European group to commit to the use of 10% SAF by 2030. “And we are not just buying SAF, we are willing to invest in developing the industry, but we need governments in the UK and Europe to act now to encourage further investment.”

NPT’s technology is feedstock agnostic, which de-risks the supply chain and future proofs the production of second-generation ethanol, says the company. Residues from sawmills and forestry operations will come from UK sawmills and include sawdust and other wood trimmings. Agricultural waste, including wheat straw and corn stover, are mostly left on the fields after harvests and used for fodder or landfill materials. NPT’s REFNOVA process also produces the co-product biochar, a natural carbon sink that can be used as soil enhancement.

Commenting on the IAG investment, NPT’s Chief Executive, Sarah Ellerby, said: “This is a transformational milestone and a real endorsement of the work we are doing. We are delighted to be adding IAG to our shareholder register.

“Our facility will be the UK’s first commercial plant of its kind and it will play a crucial role in decarbonising the aviation sector, as well as providing local employment opportunities. We are confident in beginning construction later this year and producing second-generation biofuels by 2025.”

NPT first struck a partnership with IAG subsidiary British Airways and LanzaJet in 2021, announcing the launch of Project Speedbird, in which NPT would be providing bioethanol feedstocks to be processed into SAF for the airline by a dedicated SAF plant using LanzaJet’s patented technology. With British Airways intending to purchase all the SAF, the facility is expected to produce 82,000 tonnes of SAF per year and so reducing net lifecycle CO2 emissions by 230,000 tonnes per year, the equivalent of around 26,000 BA domestic flights.

Photo: British Airways

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