World’s first ethanol-to-sustainable jet fuel plant opens in US

The world’s first plant using ethanol to make lower-polluting jet fuel opened in the US, a development that Iowa corn growers and biofuel producers say is a wake-up call to move faster to decarbonize. 

Illinois-based LanzaJet Inc. formally unveiled its $200 million facility in rural Georgia at an event Wednesday with investors, including Suncor Energy Inc. and IAG SA’s British Airways as well as US Department of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and local officials. 

The plant, which received US government funds, plans to use biofuel made from both traditional raw materials, including American-grown corn, as well as from advanced technologies, LanzaJet CEO Jimmy Samartzis said in an interview. Located in Soperton, Georgia, the facility will produce 10 million gallons of SAF and renewable diesel per year. US President Joe Biden has called for at least 3 billion gallons of overall SAF production annually by 2030.

The opening prompted Iowa groups to warn that farmers and ethanol makers in the top US corn-producing state are at risk of missing out on the chance to significantly profit from the developing market for sustainable aviation fuel, or SAF.

“No Iowa ethanol plant currently has a carbon intensity score low enough to qualify as an ingredient to make SAF,” according to a statement from the Iowa Renewable Fuels Association and Iowa Corn Promotion Board. By contrast, Brazil, which mainly makes ethanol from sugarcane, produces over 7 billion gallons of ethanol with a carbon score expected to qualify for SAF production, the groups said.