(Credit: LanzaJet)LanzaJet’s new alcohol-to-jet sustainable aviation fuel production plant is making progress toward completion and has been bolstered by a $50 million investment from the Microsoft Climate Innovation Fund.
The Freedom Pines Fuels facility in Georgia is set to be operational in 2023 and is expected to produce 10 million gallons of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) per year. LanzaJet produces the renewable diesel from low-carbon sustainable and waste-based ethanol sources.
LanzaJet says construction of the plant is on time, some modules are finished and that final site engineering is nearing completion. The company says mechanical completion will happen later this year and that it is the world’s first alcohol-to-jet SAF production plant.
The Microsoft investment is part of the company’s target of becoming carbon negative by 2030 as well as advancing a net-zero economy. It also will allow Microsoft to access renewable diesel for its data centers.
The US Department of Energy Bioenergy Technologies Office has also provided funding for the Freedom Pines Fuels plant.
As demand for SAF increases, LanzaJet has pledged to produce 1 billion gallons of the fuel by 2030. That will significantly go toward the White House’s target of 3 billion gallons of SAF produced per year by 2030, LanzaJet says.
SAF is a big focus in the aviation industry hitting emissions goals.
In addition to the Biden Administration’s SAF target, which also includes the aviation industry to be zero carbon by 2050, the European Union has pledged to increase the amount of blended SAF to 63% by 2050.
This has lead to more production possibilities, such as Chevron investing in building facilities that could allow the company to offer up to 150 million gallons of SAF per year to customers. Delta recently purchased $1 billion of SAF and United made the first commercial flight using all SAF in December 2021.
LanzaJet’s alcohol-to-jet technology has been in development for more than a decade, the company says. The Microsoft Climate Innovation Fund is a $1 billion investment by the company to help accelerate technology advancements to help with sustainability goals.
