World’s first sustainable jet fuel plant opens in Georgia. What it means for climate change

For the first time, a refinery will be making jet fuel out of ethanol–and it’s happening in Southeast Georgia.

The world’s first sustainable jet fuel plant made with ethanol technology opened Wednesday in a small town in Georgia. It brought with it the promise of a new way to mitigate a large source of climate change in the aviation sector.

Boosted by federal subsidies and cheered on by a cadre of federal and local officials and private investors, the companies behind the plant and new technology say the 12-story facility in Soperton will produce 10 million gallons of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) a year and employ 80-full time workers.

From the federal level, the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture, Tom Vilsack, lent his view on the significance of the plant’s opening.

“This has a global impact, this isn’t about just an advancement for the U.S. but for the globe. Because, at the end of the day, if we’re to mitigate the consequences of a changing climate, the transportation sector has to get to a net-zero future. In order for to get to a net-zero future, aviation has to get there as well. It can’t get there without SAF,” Vilsack said.

The project at Freedom Pine Fuels is headed by LanzaJet, and aided by investments of $18 million from the Department of Energy, and $50 million from Breakthrough Energy (A clean energy funding catalyst by Bill Gates). It is the product of decades of SAF research by LanzaTech.

“It’s never easy to be the first of anything,” Meg Whitty, LanzaJet’s Vice President of Corporate Relations and Marketing said. “There is a level of inertia in this coalition of stakeholders that I have never seen before.”

LanzaJet (the Chicago-based company) partnered with LanzaTech, the bioproduct company that has worked to make Alcohol to Jet (ATJ) technology.

Currently .1% of global aviation fuel is sustainable. The Biden administration has set a goal to move that figure to 10% by 2030 and 100% by 2050.

“This is a big deal to me,” U.S. Deputy Secretary of Energy David Turk said. “If we want to have 3 billion gallons (10% by 2030) of SAF a year, we have to start somewhere. We have a vision now.”

What is Sustainable Aviation Fuel & Alcohol To Jet?

Traditional jet fuels require digging fossil fuels out of the ground, and thereby release new carbon into the atmosphere when they are burned. ATJ technolgy is a form of SAF that uses carbon that doesn’t pull fossil fuels from the ground.

“We’ve called it biofuels, alternative fuels, today it’s called SAF,” CEO Jimmy Samartzis said.

LanzaTech has been working on creating (ATJ) or ethanol-based fuel with the Bioproducts Institute at the Pacific Northwest National Lab (PNNL). Corrine Fuller and Joshua Heyne are co-directors between Washington State University and PNNL’s Bioproducts Institute.

Scientists at PNNL are confident in ATJ fuel’s ability to meet the Biden Administrations sustainable aviation fuel grand challenge goals for aviation.

“It is the biggest lever to decarbonize aviation by 2050, full stop,” Heyne said. “There is no other way to decarbonize aviation by then.”

Fuller told the Ledger-Enquirer that the big difference in this plant refinery from an oil refinery is it’s not taking carbon from below ground, it’s taking carbon that has “already been in play”. Already in play means carbon that has already been pulled out of the ground from industries like anaerobic digestion, carbon captured from industry processes, or municipal solid waste, or feedstock.

Ethanol is a fermentation product and in some cases can be a feedstock. The other significant action Fuller and Heyne’s team is accomplishing is removing aromatics, which is what causes soot (bad for human health and radiation by contrails).

The technology that LanzaTech has developed will even have the ability to create renewable diesel and switch production of ATJ and renewable diesel with a lever per market demands.

“It can be 90% SAF and 10% Renewable Diesel…we can flip that switch if we need to 75/25 based on market conditions,” Whitty said. To give opportunity to meet market where its at.

Right now it is not clear where LanzJet will source its ethanol. However, Witty said that all agreements have been made for the next decade.

“There have been off-takes in place for all fuel production for the next 10 years,” she said. Current supporters include British Airways and All Nippon Airways.

The benefits from the Inflation Reduction Act will roll in once the company meets the required threshold set out by the SAF Grand Challenge (the company must create a 50% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions). Once they do, LanzaJet will be able to reduce the cost of gallon of fuel when its sold.

Why Soperton? How are locals taking it?

Located halfway between Macon and Savannah off of Interstate 16, the ‘million pine city’ of Soperton has a few stores and less than three stop lights with forestry and agriculture as its biggest industry.

It also is surrounded by lots of pine trees, a key ingredient in the first iteration of this technology.

“It’s kind of neat to see this monstrosity of a refinery just kind of dropped down in the middle of a bunch of pine trees,” said Phil Jennings, a Treutlen County Commissioner. “The beauty store, grocery store, and drug store was our Facebook before there was Facebook.”

Between 2010-2014, a similar operation to Freedom Pines using SAF was attempted. The company, Range Fuels, planned to use pine trees and convert to ethanol. The plant never took off.

LanzaJet took advantage of the existing site being ready and set up for something like this. LanzaTech purchased Range Fuels.

Local pharmacy owner Blake Dennard, who has been in business since 1971, joked when asked how he felt about the grand opening.

“Isn’t this like the third grand opening,” he said, referring to the 2014 exit of Range Fuels being a disappointing first. Dennard is excited to learn there will be about 80 permanent jobs, but likes Soperton small and hopes it stays that way.

Mayor John Koon spoke at the event with great enthusiasm and pride.

“I’m honored and humbled that we can be at part of this ground-breaking technology that is going to come out of little Soperton, Georgia,” Koon said. “We are so thankful that LanzaJet chose Treutlen County to come be part of this groundbreaking technology that I’m sure is going to spread all over the world.”

The U.S. Deputy Secretary of Energy David Turk said that this operation will add to the already $32 billion worth of clean energy plants in Georgia.

LanzaJet expects Treutlen County to see a boost of $5 million in new wages and benefits along with $70 million in annual economic activity.

“It’s important for us to hire locally and be good members of the community,” Whitty said.

Justin Thomason is a plant operator lead, “the boss on shift, so to speak,” at LanzaJet.

After a recruiter reached out to him, he made the move to Dublin about 20 minutes north of Soperton in August from Washington State to work at Freedom Pine Fuels.

Thomason and his family have been in the oil and gas refinery work for years and have issues with the fossil fuel industry.

“Coming from oil and gas that have been established for decades to something brand new with a new company is a chance to create a whole new culture.”