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

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Canadian electro sustainable aviation fuel (e-SAF) producer SAF+ International Group has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with French green and renewable hydrogen producer Lhyfe to develop the production of e-SAF at a site located in the port region of Le Havre in northern France. Under the cooperation agreement Lhyfe would build a green hydrogen production site that would supply more than 100 tonnes per day (300 MW of installed electrolysis capacity) to an e-SAF production site that SAF+ is planning to build. Last October, SAF+ announced a similar initiative with another French green hydrogen producer H2V that aims to produce 80,000 tonnes of e-SAF annually by 2030 at a site in the Marseille Fos industrial seaport area in southern France. The moves follow an MoU signed by SAF+ with the Air France-KLM Group in July 2023 for the supply of e-SAF starting in 2030.

The proposed complex in Le Havre would be connected to the hydrocarbon transport network in order to transport the e-SAF to airports in the Paris region, as well as in northern and eastern France via existing infrastructure, also aiming for the 2030 date.

Lhyfe has already gained a head start in producing green and renewable hydrogen through the electrolysis of water at production units powered by renewable energy. In 2021, it inaugurated the first industrial-scale plant in the world to be interconnected with a wind farm, with the world’s first offshore green hydrogen production pilot platform inaugurated in 2022. Two further sites followed last year and the company has several sites under construction or expansion across Europe.

“Green and renewable hydrogen is now a mature solution that has established itself as one of the pillars of decarbonisation,” said Lhyfe founder and CEO, Matthieu Guesné. “It can and must now be deployed as quickly as possible, including in the aviation industry.”

SAF+ is a coalition of international players from across the value chain and has a pilot plant in its home city of Montreal. It is currently developing a portfolio of projects around the world and is aiming for its first commercial-scale plant to come on stream in 2028.

“This agreement between Lhyfe and SAF+ shows our shareholders and stakeholders that our European strategy is well on track,” commented SAF+ CEO Jean Paquin. “Demand for SAF in the coming years will be exponential, so we now need to be able to demonstrate that viable solutions will be put in place in the short term.”

The company’s other French partner, H2V, is a subsidiary of industrial group SAMFI-Invest and has been working since 2016 with the aim of mass producing green hydrogen. Its most mature projects established to date are located in Dunkirk (500 MW), Thionville (400 MW) and also the 36-hectare Marseille Fos (600 MW) site, where the preliminary consultation process was completed in December.

“Our strategy is to prioritise green hydrogen for sectors that have no other decarbonisation alternatives, such as the aviation and maritime sectors, which urgently need innovative solutions to reduce their CO2 emissions,” explained Alexis Martinez, Managing Director of H2V.

Photo: Lhyfe’s world-first offshore pilot site off Nantes, France, is producing 440 kg per day of green hydrogen using the offshore wind farm as its energy source and sea water as its water source

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Further commitments have been announced by major airlines in Europe and the US for sustainable aviation fuel, collectively totalling around 550 million gallons. Air France-KLM has signed an MoU with its long-term fuel supplier TotalEnergies for up to 800,000 tonnes of SAF, or 264 million gallons, for its group of airlines, while low-cost European carrier Ryanair has partnered with Shell for another 360,000 tonnes, or 120 million gallons, and US operator JetBlue will take at least 92 million gallons of blended product from Fidelis New Energy. The three deals add to other significant offtake agreements this year by each of the airline groups as they ramp up their decarbonisation activities. Meanwhile, Virgin Atlantic is to purchase 70 million gallons of SAF over seven years as part of a new agreement with joint venture partner Delta Air Lines. The fuel, which will be produced by Gevo, will be used on flights from the US West Coast.

The Air France-KLM agreement with TotalEnergies, a strategic partner since 2014, specifies the supply of 800,000 tonnes of SAF over 10 years, with deliveries commencing in 2023. The fuel will be used by Air France, KLM and Transavia largely for flights departing from French airports, in line with national SAF blending requirements, as well as from the Netherlands. The fuel will also comply with the airline group’s policy that any SAF it procures must not compete with human food or animal feed, that it not be derived from palm oil and that it be certified as compliant.

As of earlier this year, KLM flights from Amsterdam Schiphol have been operating with a minimum of 0.5% SAF in their jet fuel and the French government has introduced a 1% SAF mandate on flights from French airports, a level that is expected to rise to 2% in 2025 and 5% in 2030 in line with proposed EU regulation. Crop-based fuels have been excluded from use in the French mandate.

“Air France-KLM is fully committed to advancing SAF production in Europe and around the world,” said CEO Benjamin Smith. “This MoU with TotalEnergies is another building block to further the development of a French SAF industry that can meet the airlines’ needs. This therefore marks a fundamental milestone in the successful decarbonisation of our business. We are continuing to step up our efforts to reduce the impact of our operations as quickly as possible.” 

TotalEnergies is targeting 1.5 million tonnes of SAF production by 2030 using waste and residues including used cooking oil, animal fats and synthetic fuels. “This new partnership with Air France-KLM exemplifies the excellence of industry and French aerospace in committing to a more sustainable aviation sector,” said its CEO Patrick Pouyanné, adding biofuel development was a company priority. “By directly reducing the carbon intensity of the energy products used by our air transport customers, we are actively working with them to achieve net zero emissions by 2050, together with society.”

In recent initiatives, Air France-KLM group airlines have operated a range of flights using between 16% and 30% SAF sourced from TotalEnergies.

The latest SAF deal coincides with confirmation that under the group’s scope 1 and 3 emissions reduction targets, Air France Group and KLM have been assessed and validated under the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) as aligning with the ‘well-below 2 degrees Celsius’ objective determined as part of the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate. The strategy is primarily centred on reducing direct and indirect CO2 emissions by 30% per passenger/km by 2030 compared to 2019.

In another European partnership, low-cost carrier Ryanair has signed an MoU with global energy company Shell for the supply of SAF to more than 200 airports across Europe, in particular the airline’s biggest bases in Dublin and London Stansted.

Through this deal, the airline expects to access up to 360,000 tonnes, or 120 million gallons, of SAF between 2025 and 2030, with the fuels produced via multiple technology pathways and using a range of sustainable feedstocks. It estimates that using this amount of SAF would reduce CO2 emissions from its flights by more than 900,000 tonnes, equivalent to the output of over 70,000 Dublin-Milan services.

“SAF plays a key role in our Pathway to Net Zero strategy, and also our commitment to a target of 12.5% SAF by 2030,” said Thomas Fowler, Ryanair’s Sustainability Director. The agreement with Shell would enable the airline to procure around 20% of the SAF needed to meet this target, he said, while progressing its aggressive growth strategy, which estimates that passenger volumes will reach 168 million in FY2023, en-route to a target of 225 million per year by FY2026. 

Jan Toschka, President of Shell Aviation, said their agreement demonstrated that both companies viewed SAF as the key to net zero aviation emissions. “It is fantastic to build on our existing relationship with Ryanair to now look at what we can achieve together on sustainability,” he said. “Leadership and bold actions are needed to accelerate the decarbonisation of flight.”

In the US, JetBlue and Fidelis New Energy (FNE) have signed an MoU on SAF, through which the airline will source at least 92 million gallons of blended product over a five-year term from 2025. The fuel will be designed to achieve negative lifecycle carbon intensity by integrating carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) and biomass energy with CCS (BECCS). The SAF will be produced at FNE’s Gron Fuels GigaSystem at the Port of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, which the company estimates will produce 1 billion gallons per year of SAF, renewable diesel and other low carbon products. The new plant will also use waste process heat to generate power, producing biogas from by-products and using flexible processing methods to produce carbon-negative SAF from existing and emerging feedstocks.

Although JetBlue is already a regular user of SAF, it accounts for less than 1% of the airline’s total fuel usage. “We need significantly more supply to reach our 2040 net zero target,” said Sara Bogdan, JetBlue’s Director of Sustainability and ESG. “With partners like Fidelis and their carbon negative Gron Fuels Gigasystem, we are not only supplying our own growing SAF needs, we’re sending a powerful signal that significant demand for SAF exists. By introducing negative carbon intensity SAF to our network, we are also taking steps towards reaching true carbon neutrality as an airline.”

In addition to producing carbon negative SAF, Fidelis Co-founder and COO Bengt Jarlsjo said his company’s high-capacity carbon sink was expected to permanently sequester some 5 million tons of biogenic CO2 per year from the Louisiana facility.

JetBlue has also had a science-based, Paris-aligned climate target to reduce jet fuel emissions approved by the SBTi. The airline commits to reducing well-to-wake scope 1 and 3 GHG emissions by 50% per revenue tonne kilometre (RTK) by 2035 from a 2019 base year, with a goal of reaching net zero carbon emissions by 2040, 10 years ahead of the sector’s target. The airline said SAF is expected to be the key contributor to large-scale lifecycle emissions reduction, although it is highly dependent on availability and costs of supply.

Virgin Atlantic Airways has announced a 70 million gallon commitment to SAF with its 49% shareholder Delta Air Lines, and to be produced by Gevo. The fuel will be supplied by Delta to Virgin Atlantic at a rate of 10 million US gallons per year over seven years at either Los Angeles or San Francisco airports. It will represent 20% of Virgin Atlantic’s commitment to 10% SAF use by 2030 and equate to around 500 trans-Atlantic flights from Los Angeles.

The parties have not disclosed a start date for deliveries of SAF, which will come from one of Gevo’s future production facilities. Gevo separates sugars and proteins from sustainably farmed non-edible industrial corn, with the sugars then used to produce SAF and the proteins fed to livestock, whose manure can then be processed to develop renewable natural gas and agricultural fertiliser.

“We know that SAF has a fundamental role to play in aviation decarbonisation,” said Holly Boyd Boland, VP Corporate Development at Virgin Atlantic. “The demand from airlines is clear and Virgin Atlantic is committed to supporting the scale up of SAF production at pace. We cannot meet our collective ambition of Net Zero 2050 without it.”

In March this year, Delta signed an agreement with Gevo valued at around $2.8 billion to purchase 75 million gallons per year over seven years, subject to Gevo developing, financing and constructing one or more production facilities to fulfil the quantity.

Image: Air France-KLM

Japanese industrial group ITOCHU Corporation and Finnish renewable energy company Neste have announced collaborative agreements to help expedite the introduction of sustainable aviation fuel in Japan. Their commitments align with the Japanese government’s 2030 goal to replace 10% of all fossil aviation fuels with SAF. The companies have signed deals to provide SAF to Japan Airlines, initially for two test flights very shortly, and a separate MoU to explore further SAF supplies to the airline in 2023. Additionally, ITOCHU has been selected by the Japanese government to demonstrate blending in Japan of imported SAF with conventional jet fuel, in partnership with Fuji Oil Company. The blending will occur in January, and in February a portion of the mixed product will be tested in aircraft owned by the Japanese Civil Aviation Bureau. Meanwhile, Neste has agreed to supply Air France-KLM with more than 1 million tonnes of SAF over a period of eight years starting in 2023 and FBO Signature Aviation has expanded access to Neste’s SAF in California for business aviation users.

ITOCHU is a key partner in Japan’s plan to transition to SAF, and a local distribution partner for Neste. It intends to introduce commercial-scale domestic production of SAF. In October 2020 it facilitated the nation’s first SAF import, for use by All Nippon Airways, and last year was part of an industrial consortium which produced SAF from biomass materials. In February this year, ITOCHU expanded its alliance with Neste to provide SAF to Tokyo’s Narita and Haneda airports, and is planning to supply other airports including Chubu Centrair in FY 2022 and Osaka’s Kansai International Airport in FY 2023.

Japan Airlines has committed to replacing 1% of its conventional aviation fuel with SAF by FY 2025, and 10% by 2030, and as a member of the oneworld airline alliance it has also signed future SAF offtake agreements in the US. Under its agreement with ITOCHU, JAL will use Neste SAF, mainly produced from waste fats, oils and greases, to part-power a “sustainable charter flight” on 18 November, in which it will fly from Haneda to Naha Airport, Okinawa, a 1,555-kilometre journey of just under two hours. Neste SAF will also be used shortly on a scheduled JAL flight from Los Angeles to Japan, though no details have been released of the volume to be used.

“The Airbus A350 aircraft, which emits 15-25% less CO2 than conventional aircraft, will be used to operate the sustainable charter flight,” said JAL. “By using sustainable aviation fuel and exercising JAL’s Carbon Offset, the flight will achieve net zero CO2 emissions.

“By the end of first quarter 2023, Neste plans to start SAF production at its Singapore plant, which is anticipated to have an annual production capacity of 1 million tonnes. JAL seeks to continue its cooperation with Neste and ITOCHU to procure SAF both globally and domestically.”

Beyond the JAL agreements, ITOCHU Corporation has also been chosen by the Japanese Civil Aviation Bureau to demonstrate the blending of imported SAF and conventional aviation fuel. “The aim of the project is to demonstrate the blending of imported neat SAF locally in Japan, which helps the country prepare for when significantly larger quantities of SAF will be needed to help the aviation industry achieve its ambitious emissions reductions goals,” said ITOCHU.

In its latest ESG report, the company’s President and COO, Keita Ishii, said ITOCHU would “aggressively promote businesses that contribute to global greenhouse gas reductions. We will contribute to resolving major social issues by promoting a decarbonised and recycling-based society, and by establishing a resilient value chain, including promoting sustainable raw materials procurement.”

Sami Jauhiainen, Neste’s VP Asia Pacific for Renewable Aviation welcomed the opportunity to support Japanese airlines and the Japanese government in targeting the replacement of conventional jet fuel with 10% SAF by 2030. “This demonstration project solicited by the Japanese Civil Aviation Bureau is an important step on the pathway towards realising that goal, as it demonstrates the blending of neat SAF with fossil jet fuel from a domestic refinery in Japan,” he said.

Last month, ITOCHU and Neste provided blended SAF to Etihad Airways, the national carrier of the United Arab Emirates, for a series of flights from Narita to Abu Dhabi – the first non-Japanese airline to use the new supply. Etihad committed to take approximately 50,000 gallons of SAF, with the first of the Boeing 787-9 flights operating with a blend of just under 40%, and reducing carbon emissions by approximately 75.2 tonnes. As well as net zero emissions by 2050, Etihad has also committed to halving its 2019 emission levels by 2035.

Meanwhile, Neste has announced further supplies of its SAF product in Europe and the United States. In an expansion of its existing cooperation with Air France-KLM, Neste will supply the airline group with more than 1 million tonnes (1.26 billion litres) of SAF over a period of eight years starting in 2023. The SAF producer says it is one of the largest agreements of its kind in the aviation sector to date.

“This announcement marks a significant next step forward in our cooperation with Air France-KLM Group and underscores how we continue to support companies in reducing their greenhouse gas emissions,” said Neste CEO Matti Lehmus. “Neste aims to help customers cut emissions by at least 20 million tonnes of CO2e annually by 2030 with our renewable and circular solutions.”

Air France-KLM is looking to reduce its CO2 emissions per passenger/km by 30% by 2030 compared to 2019 – a target submitted to SBTi – and is aiming for a 10% incorporation of SAF by the same year. It has been working with Neste since 2019, with KLM being one of the first airlines to use Neste’s SAF.

“This landmark partnership with Neste is an important and concrete step towards the decarbonisation of our operations,” said Fatima da Gloria, VP Sustainability at Air France-KLM. “This contract embodies our long-term commitment to the development of SAF production capabilities around the world, to the benefit of the industry as a whole.”

In the United States, business aviation users now have greater access to SAF in California after the world’s largest network of Fixed-Base Operations (FBOs), Signature Aviation, announced it is to expand the availability of Neste’s SAF to all its 10 locations in the state. The two companies began a partnership in 2020 and under it they will deliver over 29 million gallons of 30/70 blended SAF, reducing over 62,000 tonnes of GHG emissions.

“Two years ago, we announced our first permanent supply of SAF for private aircraft in San Francisco. Since then, we’ve maintained a sharp focus on investing in the supply chain, collaborating with our customers and expanding availability with Neste,” said Beatrice Batty, Director Fuel Operations for Signature Aviation. “The result today is the 10 Californian locations that can decisively provide the solution to reducing private aircraft carbon emissions.”

The expanded availability is enabled by Neste’s growing capacity, said Neste. “SAF is recognised as the most effective way to reduce the GHG emissions from air travel and is an important solution to reach the business aviation industry’s pledge to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2050,” commented Chris Cooper, President of Neste US. “Together, Signature and Neste are meeting the industry’s growing demand by increasing the volumes and locations where customers can have easy access to SAF to achieve their bold climate goals.”

For Signature Aviation, the expanded availability of SAF in California represents a central objective of Signature Renew, its company-wide sustainability initiative. It is the first FBO worldwide to offer a permanent supply of SAF, with the option available for privately-operated aircraft at aviation service facilities in California, Colorado, Washington, Alabama, Texas and the United Kingdom.

Photo: Japan Airlines A350-900

Additional reporting by Christopher Surgenor