In the southwest Kansas city of Liberal, SAFFiRE Renewables recently broke ground on a new pilot plant where corn stover will be converted into ethanol.
SAFFiRE is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Southwest Airlines and is building the plant at Conestoga’s Arkalon Energy ethanol facility. Corn stover consists of the leaves, stalks and corn cobs left after harvesting. The plan for the large-scale commercialization ethanol production is to convert it into sustainable aviation fuel with the alcohol-to-jet pathway reported the High Plains Journal.
SAFFiRE was acquired by Southwest Airlines in March of this year as part of the investment portfolio of its wholly owned subsidiary Southwest Airlilnes Renewable Ventures, LLC.
“This acquisition marks Southwest’s transition from investor to sole owner of SAFFiRE, expressing our confidence in SAFFiRE’s technology and its potential to advance our sustainability goals as well as the goals of the broader industry,” said Bob Jordan, President & CEO of Southwest Airlines, according to a release at the time of the announcement.
“Championing SAF (sustainable aviation fuel) is a key pillar of Southwest’s Nonstop to Net Zero plan and our work toward a more sustainable future for air travel. We look forward to continuing our journey with SAFFiRE as part of our efforts to propel this promising technology forward.”
Initially, the Liberal plant is intended to utilize SAFFiRE’s exclusive technology license from NREL to process 10 tons of corn stover per day for the production of renewable ethanol. Then, the plan is for the ethanol to be converted into SAF by LanzaJet, Inc. (LanzaJet).
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