Someday, Southwest Airlines flights out of Wichita’s Dwight D. Eisenhower National Airport may be fueled by sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) made from the corn stover baled from Kansas fields. That day is closer now that Southwest’s subsidiary SAFFiRE Renewables LLC broke ground on its pilot SAF plat at Conestoga Energy’s Arkalon Energy facility in Liberal, Kan.

According to SAFFiRE, the finished plant will be able to process 10 tons of corn stover every day into cellulosic ethanol that can be upgraded into SAF with a carbon footprint at least 83% lower than conventional jet fuel. The company uses technology that was developed by the Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory with funding from Southwest Airlines and the Department of Energy Bioenergy Technologies Office (BETO).

“Today’s groundbreaking event marks a significant milestone for SAFFiRE Renewables,” said Tom Nealon, CEO of SAFFiRE Renewables. “Our priority now is to complete the construction of our pilot plant, with a target of the fourth quarter of 2025, and begin operations. We’re very fortunate to have great partners who are equally committed to the success of SAFFiRE, including Southwest Airlines, Conestoga Energy, LanzaJet, the National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL) and the Department of Energy. There is still a lot of work to do, but we are prepared and excited for the path ahead.”

“This pilot plant shows that public-private investments can put steel in the ground for pioneering SAF facilities,” BETO Director Valerie Sarisky-Reed said. “It has been a pleasure to see DOE funding translate into industry milestones that directly support the Biden-Harris administration’s ambitious SAF Grand Challenge, which aims to decarbonize the aviation sector.”

FUTURE CONSTRUCTION: Southwest Airline’s subsidiary SAFFiRE Renewables LLC broke ground on its pilot SAF plant at Conestoga Energy’s Arkalon Energy facility in Liberal, Kan.

The groundbreaking in late August brought local, state and federal dignitaries to Liberal to discuss the future of SAF in Kansas, including Sens Jerry Moran, R-Kan., and Roger Marshall, R-Kan.; 1st District Rep. Tracey Mann, R-Kan.; and Debra Sanning, FAA deputy regional director.

Process

The SAFFiRE plant will take bales of corn stover collected by farmers or custom harvesters and process it through a proprietary deacetylation and mechanical refining (DMR) technology. This technology was developed by NREL and is called the “DMR pretreatment,” according to the company. It’s been proven at the pilot scale to ensure high sugar yields, require low enzymes and avoid other pitfalls of other methods, according to the company. SAFFiRE says it holds exclusive rights to this advanced technology.

“Our method is intended to reduce cost, increase ethanol yields and decrease carbon intensity, steering clear of the limitations faced by dilute acid and high-pressure alternatives,” according to company literature.

From the pretreatment stage, the corn stover then will go through the proven process to hydrolyze, ferment and separate it into renewable ethanol. At this point, the company says it has a projected carbon intensity score of zero. From there, alcohol-to-jet technology will upgrade the ethanol into fully certified SAF used by the airline industry. Read more here: How SAFFiRE Works.

CORN STOVER: Someday soon, corn stover like this will be used to fuel air travel through sustainable aviation fuel.

According to the DOE, an estimated 1 billion dry tons of biomass could be collected each year in the U.S., which would be enough to produce 50 billion to 60 billion gallons of SAF. Biomass could be more than just corn stover, including corn grain, oil seeds, algae, fats or used cooking oils, forestry residues, wood mill waste, municipal solid waste streams, wastewater treatment sludge, manures or dedicated energy crops.

According to the DOE, the new SAF industry could create extra revenue streams for farmers and has the potential to keep pollution from manure and sewage sludge from polluting watersheds. SAFs contain fewer aromatic components, enabling them to burn cleaner in aircraft engines, according to the DOE, resulting in lower local emissions from take-offs and landings. Read more: Sustainable Aviation Fuels.

Conestoga CEO Tom Willis, in his remarks at the ceremony, called the new SAFFiRE plant “transformational.”

“This is a day where western Kansas goes from producing natural gas energy to the start of producing sustainable aviation fuel with our partner SAFFiRE,” Willis said in a statement. “This is transformational for western Kansas. This is transformational for the airline industry. This is transformational for agriculture and the value that it brings. It started here.”

Policy help for SAF

At the groundbreaking, Growth Energy CEO Emily Skor called on policymakers to support the SAFFiRE project, and other SAV projects, through the 45Z clean fuel production tax credit, saying SAF “is a multibillion-dollar opportunity.”

PARTNERS: The SAFFiRE Renewables pilot project at Liberal is a cooperative effort among Conestoga Energy, the U.S. Department of Energy, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Southwest Airlines, Southwest Airlines Renewable Ventures and Lanzajet.

On Sept. 25, Moran announced a new bipartisan Senate Sustainable Aviation Caucus, including Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., Sen. John Boozman, R-Ariz., and Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., as members. Additionally, 3rd District Rep. Sharice Davids, D-Kan., and Rep. Dusty Johnson, R-S.D., have created a similar caucus, the Congressional Sustainable Aviation Caucus, in the U.S. House of Representatives.

“As the aviation industry strives for lower emissions and cleaner energy sources, the development and utilization of sustainable aviation fuel will be a critical element,” Moran said in a news release announcing the effort. “To help spur development, I am launching the Senate Sustainable Aviation Caucus. The caucus will work together to find ways to promote technologically innovative solutions to create a sustainable aviation industry and increase our nation’s competitiveness in the domestic production of sustainable aviation fuel.”