Sustainable aviation fuel is going to be created from South Dakota corn.
Gevo, a company making biofuel for jets, broke ground on its first commercial scale sustainable aviation fuel facility, Net-Zero 1, in Lake Preston, South Dakota in September 2022.
“Lake Preston is being designed to take carbohydrates made from corn, low carbon corn, and turn them into sustainable aviation fuel, jet fuel,” said Patrick Gruber, CEO of Gevo.
Chemically, the fuel is the same as what is in the marketplace from petroleum, except this fuel has a net-zero footprint.
“The way you do that is by designing a plant that has really every good concept of how to reduce energy inside of a plant built into it using all the best techniques,” Gruber said.
When choosing a location for the plant, Gevo decided on South Dakota because of its cost-effective, low-carbon corn, good wind sources and the railroads.
The plant will be powered by 100 megawatts of wind, it will have a hydrogen plant on-site and it has the ability to power displace natural gas with biogas.
“The over all energy efficacy makes it so it’s a really, really low carbon footprint,” Gruber said.
According to Gevo, every year the plant will use around 38 million bushels of corn to produce around 60 million gallons of sustainable aviation fuel, 800,000 gallons of renewable diesel and 4.4 million gallons of renewable naphtha. The plant will also produce low-carbon protein, feed and vegetable oil.
Gevo plans to use corn grown in South Dakota with soil health practices in mind.
Source : Republic
