In August 2023, the Greater MSP Partnership and a handful of anchor collaborators including Delta Airlines, Ecolab, Xcel Energy and Bank of Amerca unveiled an unprecedented initiative to launch the first large-scale sustainable aviation fuel hub in the country. While Minnesota is home to &nbsp;leading universities, institutions and other collaborators who are all on board to accelerate SAF delivery to Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport, the ambition of this group is so big that they are welcoming stakeholders from across the country to join the mission, which is well underway.Making a Market&nbsp;&nbsp; As for why, exactly, Minnesota is an ideal location for a SAF hub, the short answer is that producing sustainable aviation fuel is a puzzle that requires many different pieces that the state just so happens to have, says Peter Frosch, CEO of the GREATER MSP Partnership. “First and very importantly, it has a large-scale concentration of demand—the Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport,” he says. “Second, we have research capabilities at the University of Minnesota that are aligned with many of the technical areas in SAF where problem solving is required. Third, we have clean power—Xcel Energy has a 100% renewable mandate by 2040 and is on track to be 85%-plus clean power by the end of this decade. That's a big advantage, and is absolutely necessary in order to meet carbon reduction goals. Fourth, we have a major agricultural economy that produces multiple large-volume commodities with the entire integrated value chain including transportation, and related to that, we have an existing large-scale biofuels industry. So, we have technical knowhow for doing work in this industry, and a group of leaders and institutions in Minnesota capable of tackling the SAF challenge. We have this hub not just because Minnesota makes sense as a place to go for a SAF economy, because the will exists among key leaders and institutions to do that.”When the partners began engaging in efforts 18 months ago, Frosch says, it quickly became clear that many entities want to participate in the SAF market. However, reality was that only about 20 million gallons of SAF was available in the U.S. last year. “So really, the market does not exist at scale,” he says. “We're focused on a strategic effort to build an industrial-scale value chain to produce the product at scale. There are some players trying to participate in a market that doesn't yet exist, and many fewer who are willing to step forward, roll up their sleeves and help build that market. We welcome conversations with any interested party who would like to play a role in problem-solving in Minnesota. We have worked to create different avenues of engagement that require varying levels of commitment and visibility. We welcome any and all interest.”Pathways, Policy and Possibilities&nbsp; With many different technologies available, it isn’t a matter of preference, according to Frosch. “The Minnesota SAF hub is anchored on an ambition to build an industrial-scale value chain for SAF that delivers a large volume of low-carbon, affordable SAF to the airport in incremental milestones,” he says. “This strategy requires multiple technology paths, given the volumes that we're seeking, acknowledging the many uncertainties that exist, and considering the technology economics of today. All partners of the hub agree that there are multiple ways to make SAF, and ultimately, we're going to have to engage multiple different technology pathways whether its HEFA, ATJ, power to liquid or something else.”As for challenges or barriers, Frosch says that, one of them is uncertainty. “What we're doing is new, so we need to prioritize and solve problems in a sequential and disciplined way, but one example of a challenge right now is regulatory uncertainty—the Treasury Department hasn’t released its updated version of the GREET model used to calculate lifecycle greenhouse gas reductions for the purposes of the Section 40B SAF tax credit, so that’s an unknown.”Along with challenges comes learning, and that's constantly happening, Frosch says. “That’s the big idea here. We must bring an innovation mindset to the overall effort. Every day, every week, blocking and tackling—it’s necessary to make this work. So little is built, so we have to see ourselves as innovators. A lot of this work is very exciting. We've learned many things about technology and what's possible—what might be possible sooner than we imagined if certain conditions came into play. And on the technology side, faster solutions, more economical, greater carbon-intensity-reduction potential than we imagined just six or eight months ago. The real challenges are more about the economics, and less about the technology.”Cost, Carbon &amp; Climate&nbsp;&nbsp; The cost of SAF compared to conventional jet fuel is an often-discussed topic—Frosch says that the partnership has a plan to initiate the market by covering the initial premium of SAF. “The new Minnesota state incentives for SAF, which were signed into law in August, can be layered with federal SAF incentives, and we have a demand consortium of private sector companies that we are working with in order to order to completely close that initial gap of the cost of SAF and Jet A.”Ultimately, the motivation of Delta Airlines and all the other key partners in this effort is to decarbonize air travel and do it in a way that is sensitive to all other environmental factors, Frosch says. “The strategy of the Minnesota SAF hub has aggressive and innovative aims around not only initiating a SAF market, but scaling volume and reducing the life cycle carbon intensity of SAF as quickly as possible,” he adds. “This is where a focus on regenerative agriculture is so important—what we're striving to do is achieve both carbon and climate mitigation targets with biodiversity and land use priorities. We want to work with environmental organizations, locally and nationally, to cocreate a high-integrity, Minnesota-based SAF economy that could become a model for how this can be done throughout the country and the world.”&nbsp; &nbsp;

2024-03-12 - Spotlight | GREATER MSP - Taking Flight: Minnesota’s SAF Hub (SAF Magazine)

In August 2023, the Greater MSP Partnership and a handful of anchor collaborators including Delta Airlines, Ecolab, Xcel Energy and Bank of Amerca unveiled an unprecedented initiative to launch the first large-scale sustainable aviation fuel hub in the country.

Spotlight | GREATER MSP - Taking Flight: Minnesota’s SAF Hub

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