Ethanol’s Own SAF Runway
Summary
Airline groups, government agencies and tech developers are all aligning to utilize low-carbon, biobased jet fuel for a market that currently requires 106 billion gallons per year. Speaking to the crowd at the National Ethanol Conference earlier this year, William Collings, mechanical engineer and consultant for 1898 & Co., said the use of triglycerides for SAF is slowing down because there is not a lot of it out there. SAFFiRE (Sustainable Aviation Fuel from Renewable Ethanol), will demonstrate reliable, low-greenhouse gas (GHG) production of SAF from corn stover in a fully integrated, 10-metric ton per day pilot-scale facility. NREL has already proven how well the low-temperature deacetylation and mechanical refining pretreatment process can work when combined with enzymatic hydrolysis and C5/C6 sugar fermentation—the platform SAFFiRE will use to make the cellulosic ethanol building block of bio-jet fuel. The plant will also include on-site carbon capture and sequestration and renewable energy to produce SAF, resulting in a lifecycle greenhouse gas reduction of more than 70 percent compared to conventional jet fuel.