It’s a pivotal year for the nation’s energy economy, with what’s tracking to be a very close election just a couple of months away. &nbsp;While there are varying views of what might ensue under a Trump Administration, some of opinions I’ve read and listened to believe sustainable aviation fuel will fare just fine. This is partly given Trump’s previous track record of support for farmers and agriculture, but mainly that the most SAF-relevant parts of the Biden administration's landmark Inflation Reduction Act (tax credits) are likely to be safe from dismantling, particularly because many Republican-led districts are benefitting from the IRA. In fact, according to a new report by E2, &nbsp;more than 60% of all IRA-fueled projects over the past two years are in Republican districts (North Carolina's 9th district leads for clean energy investments with nearly $9.9 billion, followed by Georgia's 11th congressional district at $6.6 billion). On top of that, &nbsp;some predictions suggest that a Trump victory may even result in more relaxed standards/regulations, which could potentially accelerate ethanol projects’ qualification for 45Z credits. Despite all the speculation, we still have about three months to go until Election Day, and we’ll be ready to cover it as it all unfolds.&nbsp;As for stories in these pages, our first feature, “Carbon Rebrand” on page 14, takes a look at California-based Twelve’s technology that uses CO2 electrolysis for the production of chemicals, materials and e-fuels like SAF. There are many different applications for the technology, says its founders Ashwin Jadhav and Nicholas Flanders, but Twelve chose to focus on SAF first because of its “demand and impact.” The company’s first commercial-scale facility is under construction in Moses Lake, Washington, and is expected to begin delivering fuel in mid-2025.The second feature and our cover story, “Expanding the Feedstock Arsenal” on page 20, details some unconventional feedstocks as SAF contenders, from cassava to milk permeate to hybrid hemp. As feedstock competition intensifies, developers will need to look outside their traditional inputs, and maybe one of the options featured in this story will appeal to them.Finally, we’ve included five industry contributions on a range of different topics, including one from OPIS’s Jordan Godwin on current renewable diesel margins, and the allure and process of switching to SAF. I’m amazed at the continual interest in contributing to SAF Magazine, and if you'd like to but haven’t yet reached out, please do so. Send me a note at asimet@bbiinternational.com.Author: Anna Simet&nbsp; Editor, SAF Magazine

2024-08-26 - An Election on the Horizon (SAF Magazine)

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It’s a pivotal year for the nation’s energy economy, with what’s tracking to be a very close election just a couple of months away. 

An Election on the Horizon

The aviation industry stands at the cusp of a monumental shift as it grapples with its significant carbon footprint. Sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) is poised to revolutionize air travel, but widespread adoption hinges on overcoming several critical challenges. The industry is on the verge of this transformation, yet achieving it requires advancements in technology, scaling up production and understanding the role of policy.&nbsp;SAF, a cleaner and more sustainable alternative to conventional jet fuel, has generated robust demand from the outset. Airlines are urgently seeking to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, driven by both environmental responsibility and external pressures such as the flight-shaming movement popularized by Greta Thunberg. In a recent episode of Clean Fuels Alliance America’s “Better. Cleaner. Now!” podcast, Veronica Bradley, Clean Fuels director of environmental science, emphasized that this proactive stance by the airline industry marks a significant shift from fossil fuels to renewable sources, a necessary step toward reducing the aviation sector's carbon footprint. "The airlines are committed to decarbonizing and see liquid renewable fuels as the only viable mechanism for achieving this in the near term," Bradley said.&nbsp;However, the scale of the challenge is daunting. In 2022, the U.S. consumed approximately 24 billion gallons of jet fuel, while global consumption was around 99 billion gallons. Bradley highlighted that current SAF production is still in the millions of gallons, orders of magnitude away from meeting this demand. Even so, the industry is optimistic about ramping up production. "There are numerous projects projected to come online between now and 2027," said Jonathan Martin, Clean Fuels director of economics and market analytics.&nbsp;New production projects span various technologies, including alcohol-to-jet and hydroprocessed esters and fatty acids (HEFA), the latter being similar to processes used for renewable diesel. Martin elaborated on the technical differences between conventional jet fuel and SAF. Drawing on his background in chemical engineering, he explained that SAF is more paraffinic, consisting of long, straightchain molecules, whereas conventional jet fuel includes a mix of these molecules and aromatic compounds, which are crucial for certain engine functions. "One of the main differences is that aromatic compounds are needed for the O-rings and other components inside the plane to function properly," Martin said.&nbsp;Currently, SAF must be blended with conventional jet fuel, with blending limits ranging from 5% to 50% to meet ASTM standards.The United States and European Union are at the forefront of SAF production. Companies like Diamond Green Diesel are converting existing facilities to SAF production in response to high demand. Bradley pointed out that historically, only a few companies produced SAF at commercial volumes, but this is rapidly changing. &nbsp;"We will see a much more diverse portfolio of SAF producers in the near term," she said.Looking ahead, the industry faces both challenges and opportunities. While the immediate focus is on scaling up SAF production, understanding the role of supportive policies and incentives is also crucial. Bradley highlighted how policy can influence both production and adoption of SAF. "Airlines are looking for opportunities to partner with agencies and governments that support decarbonization," she said.&nbsp;At the federal and state levels, there are already significant efforts to incentivize SAF use, which may facilitate its broader adoption. While SAF is still in its early stages, it holds tremendous promise for the aviation industry. With strong demand from airlines, ongoing technological advancements and the role of supportive policies, SAF could play a pivotal role in reducing the carbon footprint of air travel. As Martin succinctly put it, "The outlook is very positive; the advantage SAF producers have is a willing customer base."&nbsp;The future of aviation is not just about flying higher or faster, but about flying cleaner—and that future is being shaped now. Clean Fuels Alliance America&nbsp; www.cleanfuels.org&nbsp; info@cleanfuels.org&nbsp;

2024-08-26 - The Future of Aviation is Now (SAF Magazine)

The aviation industry stands at the cusp of a monumental shift as it grapples with its significant carbon footprint.

The Future of Aviation is Now

As the global mission to decarbonize the aviation industry moves forward, waste feedstock utilization will be a core component of many successful renewable diesel and sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) fuel producers’ feedstock strategies. Competition for higher-quality, traditional feedstocks has already intensified, bringing the need for feedstock pretreatment to the fore.Pretreatment capabilities have become critical to the economic, efficient and reliable operation of a biofuel plant. As compared to higher-quality feedstocks that have historically been used in the biofuel industry—such as soybean or canola oil—the impurities of waste feedstocks require more complex pretreatment processes to meet quality requirements. Flexible pretreatment process configurations, a specialty of Austria-based BDI-BioEnergy International, are essential to address waste feedstock impurities, particularly when different feedstock types are processed in the same production line.Modular Concept, Cutting-Edge Technology&nbsp; The BDI Advanced PreTreatment process is modular, allowing for adaptation to raw material requirements based on the core modules of prepurification, drying and adsorption. The process also includes additional modules such as polyethylene reduction with a special process patented by BDI, as well as the separation or conversion of free fatty acids from raw material. The modular concept allows operators to easily make adjustments to operation modes and parameters without the need for specialized expertise.The core technology of the BDI PrePurification unit, the initial processing step, is based on a special centrifuge technology that tackles the challenges linked to the nature of waste oils and fats, especially as the sticky properties of lower-quality feedstocks increase with progressing degradation. The robust equipment design prevents fouling, simplifies cleaning and ensures a stable process. The centrifuge maximizes yields within the process step and minimizes downtime in cleaning processes, ensuring high plant availability.A Key Advantage&nbsp; Armed with three decades of experience in managing diverse oils and fats, BDI provides comprehensive support throughout the entire project, from initial raw material analyses to operational support. This includes training operators to adjust parameters based on analytical results.Built for flexibility, BDI’s plants are suited to meet challenges down the road, with critical factors already addressed in each tailor-made solution.While high-quality feedstocks are the most ideal for processing, demand-driven price increases and scarcity will likely force some producers to consider lower-quality feedstocks. BDI’s Advanced PreTreatment system provides operators with the ability to adapt to utilize these raw materials now and in the future, which will be a key advantage to many facilities.&nbsp; &nbsp;

2024-08-26 - Spotlight: BDI-BioEnergy International | Feedstock Flexibility Front and Center (SAF Magazine)

Spotlight: BDI-BioEnergy International | Feedstock Flexibility Front and Center

As the renewable fuel industry positions itself for growth, refiners are adapting to complex feedstocks and mounting environmental regulations. Central to this transformation is the pretreatment stage, which plays a crucial role in renewable diesel and sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) production. Given these developments, refiners should focus on optimizing the total cost of ownership (TCO)—a comprehensive measure encompassing all costs associated with the operation, maintenance and lifecycle of pretreatment units.In renewable fuel processing, pretreatment is crucial for safeguarding the downstream process. Emerging technologies offer new perspectives in feedstock processing, particularly in the degumming stage followed by crucial adsorbent treatment. Novel approaches, like microfluidic array reactor concepts, are making headway and can improve the TCO for refiners and their pretreatment units.Process intensification technologies can achieve improved degumming results. For example, a microfluidic array reactor concept that operates in laminar flow conditions improves mass transfer between feedstocks and water to remove impurities, with additional acid or enzyme to the process. This method is effective for feedstocks free of solids, with low to moderate impurities, and a low tendency for fouling. Another approach involves increasing flow rates to create turbulence, or solely increasing pressure and temperature. Hydrothermal processes have long been used for fat splitting, but can cause issues if certain criteria are not met. Higher fouling tendencies at elevated impurity levels can lead to unexpected downtime and high wastewater production.To evaluate the reliability and efficiency of the process for refiners or pretreatment units, assessing both short- and long-term benefits, including TCO, is crucial. Key factors in this calculation include manpower, product loss, waste disposal, utilities and downtime. Effective waste disposal strategies are essential for minimizing environmental impact and complying with regulations while managing costs. Optimizing utility usage and minimizing downtime through robust process design ensures continuous production and avoids costly disruptions.The established degumming process with TONSILTM adsorbents has shown exceptional performance in removing impurities like metals and phosphorus from various feedstocks. Designed for versatility, TONSILTM adapts to changes in feedstock composition, ensuring consistent purification outcomes. This adaptability enhances both the efficiency and reliability of pretreatment, making TONSILTM an excellent choice for modern renewable fuel production.Building on its success in traditional pretreatment, TONSILTM can also be integrated as an advanced polishing material within new degumming processes. This integration further refines feedstock purification, empowering refiners to achieve a more favorable TCO and improved renewable fuel production outcomes.&nbsp;

2024-08-26 - Spotlight: Clariant | Adsorbents Lead SAF Pretreatment Advances, Cost Optimization  (SAF Magazine)

Spotlight: Clariant | Adsorbents Lead SAF Pretreatment Advances, Cost Optimization 

The Carbon Transformation Technology developed by California-based Twelve splits apart carbon dioxide (CO2) at low temperatures using electrochemistry, creating foundational elements for fuels, chemicals and plastics.Twelve, founded in 2016, has partnered for demonstration projects to produce the world’s first laundry detergent ingredients from CO2 with Procter &amp; Gamble, the world’s first car parts from CO2 with Mercedes Benz and, most recently, the world’s first e-jet fuel from CO2 with the United States Air Force. “As we’ve embarked on this journey, not only have we invented our technology, but we’ve also seen the right amount of investment and support from the right partners and customers,” says Ashwin Jadhav, vice president of business development at Twelve. “We’ve seen and participated in many sectors growing.”With so many potential applications, Twelve chose to focus first on sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) because of its demand and impact, according to Jadhav and Nicholas Flanders, Twelve cofounder and CEO. SAF provides a ready market and customers with a strong drive to decarbonize, as well as incentives through state programs and the Inflation Reduction Act. But fundamentally, the technology is ideally suited for e-fuels, with its low-temperature process and ability to integrate with a variety of electricity sources, including (and preferably) renewables, Flanders says.Jadhav also emphasizes the immediate need to reduce reliance on fossil fuels and to remove CO2 from the atmosphere. Aviation, he cites, accounts for 3% of global carbon emissions—1 billion tons of CO2 per year. Twelve’s e-jet SAF, made with CO2, water and renewable electricity, has up to 90% lower emissions than conventional jet fuel. “Pretty quickly after the Air Force demonstration announcement, we started to attract commercial airline customers,” Flanders says. Alaska Airlines is the first commercial airline partner and, along with Microsoft, already has off-take agreements in place for the e-jet fuel produced at Twelve’s first commercial-scale production plant, currently under construction in Moses Lake, Washington. “We’ve really anchored on SAF as a core product,” Flanders says.Cyclical Carbon Economy&nbsp;&nbsp; Though carbon capture has become a key piece of the solution to reducing emissions, Jadhav envisions a more circular, useful application. “At Twelve, we believe in taking that carbon and transforming it. That captured carbon goes back into the operational loop. So, we’re creating a cyclical carbon economy ... it thereby eliminates the reliance on fossil fuels, because you’re using the carbon dioxide as a feedstock.”Carbon Transformation Technology is a CO2 electrolyzer that uses renewable electricity, CO2 and water to produce carbon monoxide. That outputted carbon monoxide is added to hydrogen (also produced by Twelve through water electrolysis) to make syngas, what Jadhav calls a “foundational element.” To produce the e-jet fuel, that syngas is run through a Fischer-Tropsch reactor. The result is an ASTM-certified, drop-in fuel that will not need recertification.The Federal Aviation Administration currently caps SAF blending at 50%, but Jadhav expects that figure to increase as more testing proves SAF to be a reliable fuel. “As we test at higher blend ratios, we should be able to use it at higher ratios in the future,” he says, adding that successful tests are being conducted already with SAF at 100%. “So, it’s just a matter of getting the hours into those engine cycles and making sure that there’s no degradation of engine parts or long-term degradation in general. And as that happens more and more, regulatory authorities will get the confidence to start increasing the blend levels.”Jadhav says potential customers regularly ask if the technology is real, and are amazed when they see it in person in Alameda, California. “It is real, and we are progressing—the dream that Nicholas, Etosha and Kendra had back in 2016 is starting to become a reality.”Twelve cofounders Flanders, Chief Science Officer Etosha Cave, and Chief Technology Officer Kendra Kuhl started the company based on the Phd research of Cave and Kuhl at Stanford Business School. The two were both focusing on electrocatalysis for CO2 conversion, while Flanders was working on his joint engineering and business administration masters' degrees. “It certainly struck a chord for me because it was a way of adding value to captured CO2 as opposed to just taking CO2 and pouring it in the ground,” Flanders says. The team needed to take these scientific principles and turn them into an industrially efficient and scalable device that could be used at a significant enough scale to have a real impact on the climate.The technology was incubated at Stanford’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory through a fellowship program now called Activate. All of the funding was government-derived to start, Flanders says, from the Energy Department, NASA and the National Science Foundation. “With some traction and proof of concept demonstration and interest from customers, we were able to attract venture capital.”Then, in 2021, the Air Force expressed interest, not only for sustainability and flexibility, but also as a means to save lives, as fuel transports are often targeted, Flanders says. Twelve started to look toward commercialization and further scale-up, eventually growing to 270 employees. The company is well funded, Jadhav says, and raised over $250 million in the past few years. “The amount of confidence and support we’ve seen from investors and partners has been tremendous. We’ve attracted some of the biggest investors,” he says, citing Microsoft, Capricorn Investment Group, DCVC and Microsoft Climate Investment Fund. Twelve also has a 14-year, multimillion-gallon deal with International Airlines Group, as well as an agreement with the Sustainable Aviation Buyers Alliance, a group of corporate customers interested in purchasing SAF credits. “The last few years of commercialization have been tremendous because we wouldn’t have imagined corporate customers pooling together to buy large amounts of SAF credits, for example,” Jadhav says. “Just being part of that process has been tremendous.”Current and Future Development&nbsp; About 50% complete, Twelve's commercial plant in Moses Lake is expected to begin delivering fuel in mid-2025, Jadhav says. Much of the electrolysis equipment is in place and significant milestones on the hydrogen process are expected in the next few months. “It’s progressing as we hoped and we’re lucky to have partners like Alaska Airlines that also are looking forward to the fuel starting next year,” he says.The CO2 supply for the plant will come from undisclosed ethanol producers. “It’s fairly concentrated CO2, it’s fairly clean, which means it’s relatively easy and cheap to capture and process,” Flanders says. “We’re quite compatible with this existing industry that’s making biogenic CO2 emissions, and we can now put them to use and turn them into clean fuel.” Estimating CO2 emissions of about 40 million tons across the U.S. ethanol industry annually, Flanders says, “There’s a huge amount of CO2 that’s just being thrown away every day. We can turn that CO2 into e-jet fuel.”The goal for scale-up is to colocate near ethanol plants for Twelve’s dozen or so future U.S. facilities, Flanders says, before branching out internationally. Siting what Twelve calls AirPlants—producing e-jet fuel and e-naphtha—relies heavily upon demand, electricity costs and policy environments.Washington has demand for SAF, on account of its significant air traffic, Boeing facilities and other industries, Jadhav says. It also has favorable costs for land, CO2 and clean electricity. Twelve is looking to solar, wind and hydro power, with as little fossil content as possible. “Washington has a lot of hydropower and at reasonable cost,” Jadhav says. “That was one of the key, key elements right there because our process uses such a large amount of electricity, and that electricity cost is one of our key drivers to where we locate.”But likely the most important factor in choosing Washington for the first air plant is its policy environment. “Washington has a very visionary perspective on sustainable fuels and renewable diesel and anything climate-oriented, and they’re putting together the right policies,” Jadhav says. “And we ended up signing an agreement with Alaska Airlines and Microsoft, so with the delivery of the fuel going to Seattle, everything became just very cohesive and aligned.”Successful scale-up for the SAF industry will require discipline, Jadhav says. “For the industry to really meet the objectives we’ve set out for 2050, there has to be disciplined growth, from a value-driven perspective, simply because the cost has to be looked at very closely because the product itself—fuel and SAF in general—cannot cost the same in 2050 as it does right now. It’s our responsibility to embark on that cost curve. We could hypothetically build multiple plants at the same time, but that won’t give us the cost synergies that we want. In a very disciplined way, we are focused on building our first commercial plant, learning from that and then building the next one around 2028.” The readily available feedstock and modular design also are favorable for Carbon Transformation Technology to successfully scale.After SAF scale-up, Twelve will continue to explore other options for its technology. “The applicability is quite diverse, but we’ve chosen to be very disciplined and choose one product, prove out the technology and grow the business using that product, and diversify in the future when it makes sense from a business perspective and an industry perspective,” adds Jadhav, who lists sunglass lenses, laundry detergent, plastics for chairs and picture frames among the possibilities. &nbsp;“We want to succeed, and our future vision here is that one day, CO2 will improve its brand image—going from a pollutant to a feedstock that is essential to create not just fuel, but other materials and chemicals.”Author: Lisa Gibson&nbsp; Contributing Writer, SAF Magazine

2024-08-26 - Carbon Rebrand (SAF Magazine)

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California-based Twelve is making SAF with carbon dioxide from industrial processes like ethanol production. Once established, the versatile technology will branch out into other fuels, chemicals and materials, all from CO2. 

Carbon Rebrand

As momentum behind the sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) industry has grown, so has the need for nontraditional feedstocks. &nbsp;According to U.S. DOE’s 2023 Billion-Ton Report, there is up to 1.5 billion tons of biomass available on a &nbsp;sustainable basis in the U.S. each year, from waste to forest residuals to ag waste. Currently available but unused biomass resources can add around 350 million tons of additional biomass per year above current uses, according to the report, which indicates that 1 billion tons of biomass can produce about 60 billion gallons of biofuel, or 1.7 times the amount of sustainable energy needed to achieve the Sustainable Aviation Fuel Grand Challenge.With feedstock competition heating up, many are looking at new and unconventional feedstocks. SAF Magazine discussed some promising options with experts who will be making their cases at the upcoming SAF Conference &amp; Expo in St. Paul, Minnesota, Sept. 11-13.Milk Permeate&nbsp; The feedstock of choice for Omid McDonald, founder of Dairy Distillery, is a byproduct of the dairy production process called permeate. McDonald explains that there are two different types of permeate: whey and milk. Whey permeate is left over after the proteins are filtered out of the whey following cheesemaking. Similarly, the filtration process of &nbsp;skim milk to concentrate the proteins found therein leaves behind milk permeate, which is made up of lactose, water and some remaining minerals.Milk permeate is a waste product, meaning that it is not something any dairy producer makes intentionally. “No one milks cows or processes cheese to make permeate, and any value that dairy processors get from permeate is trivial, so from a carbon accounting point of view you could call it a waste,” McDonald says. This status means that none of the upstream carbon emission accounting needs to be done, giving ethanol made from milk permeate a low carbon intensity score of 15 grams CO2 per megajoule. When adding the generally used score of 15 grams CO2 per megajoule attributed to upgrading ethanol to jet fuel, this gives milk permeate-based SAF a score of 30 grams CO2 per megajoule, well below the threshold of 44.Although there is not enough milk permeate to meet all SAF demand, there is enough to make a difference. “American cows produce a lot of milk, and 4% of that milk by weight is lactose, which is the sugar in the permeate that we ferment,” McDonald says. “It’s going to be impossible to use every drop of lactose to make sustainable aviation fuel, but if you were [able to], just to give you an idea of scope, you’re talking about 370 million gallons of SAF.”Making 370 million gallons using milk permeate is the “theoretical maximum” he explains, however, it is plausible to reach 10% to 15% of that. Also, as demand for liquid dairy products fluid milk decreases and demand for dairy products (cheese, proteins) without lactose increases, the amount of permeate available will only increase.The other challenge of using milk permeate as a SAF feedstock is how spread out dairy processing plants farm locations are. “There isn’t a single dairy plant that could produce enough ethanol to be turned into SAF, and you need to get to a certain scale size for a SAF plant,” McDonald says. “We have to aggregate ethanol from a couple dairies, which is not a huge problem, but it is different than if you’re attaching a SAF plant to a giant corn ethanol plant.”Cassava&nbsp; One of the benefits of the cassava plant is its potential to be utilized as a feedstock under two different SAF processing methods, explains Jerome Friler, CEO of Satarem America. Cassava root holds a lot of starch, making it a great feedstock for ethanol production, which can then be upgraded to SAF using the alcohol-to-jet process. The stem of the cassava plant is essentially woody biomass, which can be gasified and turned into a syngas, which can be changed into SAF via the Fischer-Tropsch method. &nbsp;There are several key benefits of utilizing cassava as a feedstock, Friler explains. “First, it’s very easy to grow, and in Africa, they’ve been growing it for hundreds of years, so it grows well and [has] a good yield,” he says. “This is actually the best plant or the best seed to [make] alcohol. And then the alcohol-to-jet the process basically is the same, whether you make the alcohol from corn or from sugarcane or from cassava.”&nbsp;The stems of the plant are plentiful and underutilized, making them an ideal waste feedstock. Cassava roots are also being used to make bioethanol in Brazil and Thailand.&nbsp;Satarem is interested in pursuing both methods of production to both maximize market opportunities worldwide and the volume of SAF they are able to produce. “The ethanol part is already developed, but we are working full steam on the SAF part, alcohol-to-jet and [cassava] residue-to-SAF,” Friler says. The company is developing a SAF plant in the Tiebissou area of the Belier region of Ivory Coast.Cassava offers a great opportunity for project developers in parts of the African continent. All countries signed a mandate in November 2023 at an International Air Transport Association conference that states every airport on the continent must have a minimum of 5% SAF by 2030. “For Ivory Coast, we will need to produce approximately 50,000 [metric] tons per year of SAF for Abidjan [International] Airport, and we are planning on producing 100,000 altogether, so 50,000 for the local market and another 50,000 for export,” he says. Even 100,000 tons of SAF would only meet 20% of the Addis Ababa airport fuel needs.&nbsp;One of the benefits of developing this project in Ivory Coast is the availability of local manpower to harvest the cassava, explains Friler. However, building a plant in the country is challenging because of the complex land rights. “It’s a mixture of legal issues plus local issues and so on, so it takes quite some time to get the land,” he says. “Then you have to bring the fertilizers and the irrigation [because that equipment is not] over there. Apart from that—especially in Ivory Coast where we work—it rains a lot, and when it doesn’t rain you have a lot of sunshine, so things grow very, very fast, and that’s a good advantage.”Hybrid Hemp&nbsp; Although hemp was outlawed in the U.S. for several decades, a new hybrid strain of this oilseed offers U.S. farmers and SAF producers a unique opportunity to maximize SAF feedstock availability. John McKay, chief scientist at New West Genetics, explains that NWG hybrid hemp possesses more oil content than soybeans. Since hemp was made legal in 2014, New West Genetics has worked on developing a hybrid industrial hemp plant—titled Amplify—that yields double a standard plant’s yield. This makes it a great fit for project developers producing SAF through the hydroprocessed esters and fatty acids (HEFA) production process due to the increased yield and sustainability of the crop compared to standard hemp and other energy crops.&nbsp;According to the GREET Feedstock Carbon Intensity Calculator, NWG Amplify has a much more favorable CI score than other oilseeds serving fuel. Hemp’s profile in general yields more oil than soybeans, with 30% of the seed being made of oil compared to 20% for soybeans. “[Basically,] we made a competitor to soy in terms of yield of oil per acre,” says Wendy Mosher, CEO of New West Genetics. "The sustainability and water needs are lower, drought and frost tolerance are better, as well as the carbon sequestration potential—it is much greater than most annual crops.”&nbsp;This hybrid hemp is an attractive option for farmers desiring to grow two crops in the same field each growing season. New West Genetics’ scientists have also worked to improve the cold hardiness of the plant, allowing it to be planted earlier so that winter wheat or another crop could be planted after the hemp is harvested.AMPLIFY’s higher yield is also an advantage over some other low-CI crops frequently discussed in the SAF space. “[Higher yields] make it an attractive crop for this supply chain,” McKay says. “Obviously, lower-yielding crops are not in favor with farmers; the processors don’t like them because you’re only getting 500 to a thousand pounds of the oilseed per acre. The farmer can’t possibly make that much money.”Mosher explains that hemp faces the same challenges as any new crop in the current day agriculture supply chain: scaling up. New crops are not favored under the crop insurance programs benefitting farmers in the U.S., and this makes planting a new crop inherently risky for farmers—even crops with clear economic potential.&nbsp;Hemp stalks also provide farmers with an additional revenue stream through utilization in making products like textiles, building materials and insulation.&nbsp;“I think people are very excited about hemp,” Mosher says. “We’ve seen larger-scale adoption of hemp than these other crops over the past 10 years. Farmers like the rotation; there’s benefits to it. I’m really excited about the AMPLIFY hybrids, and ... [if] we can add soil sequestration and soil carbon credits—there are some private markets popping up for that—I see a lot of potential.”Supply Chain and Preprocessing&nbsp; Novel biogenic feedstocks such as municipal solid waste (MSW), corn stover and wood residuals often come with unique feedstock supply chain and processing challenges. Idaho National Laboratory is dedicated to understanding problems and identifying solutions to help producers mitigate the risk involved in using these feedstocks. Luke Williams, senior research engineer with INL, explains that preprocessing and supply chain considerations are often overlooked when considering a potential feedstock. “People often assume that the [currently] available, industrial size-reduction equipment will produce a viable feedstock that will feed and handle well,” he says. “What gets missed is how much wear they’re going to have on their equipment and how often their hoppers, feed systems and screens will break or plug as the moisture content on their corn stover changes with harvest conditions or biologically degrades. There are a lot of logistical challenges around solids handling that I think are underappreciated broadly in the biomass industry, and that is what we are trying to help solve.”INL’s team thoroughly examines feedstock characteristics, runs technoeconomic analyses and lifecycle assessments to help fuel producers understand the feedstock’s logistics and processing needs to make a conversion-ready feedstock. His team has assessed feedstock supply, logistics and preprocessing for everything from corn stover, loblolly pine residues, ocean plastics, cover crops and more. “At our processing facility, we take power consumption measurements, processing throughputs, failure modes, initial and final particle sizes, as well as chemical and mechanical analysis so you know how much it takes to transform a raw waste into something that is useful that we can then tie to lifecycle assessments,” Williams says.&nbsp;INL does not study feedstock conversion past gram-scale screening experiments, and instead partners with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and other conversion facilities to understand how feedstocks convert into fuels and chemicals. INL does perform contract research for companies, because the lab does not compete with industry, so the researchers there do not perform services like sample testing alone.&nbsp;Raw biomass is an attractive feedstock for SAF producers, but in some cases, only 30% of raw biomass gathered fits into a biorefinery’s specifications and it needs to be engineered into a much narrower specification, Williams explains. Adhering to these narrow specifications is vital, because producers must be able to efficiently convert their feedstock and ultimately keep their CI scores low by avoiding process upsets and increasing operational reliability. INL performs the breadth of research needed to understand the challenges associated with turning a waste stream into well-characterized, conversion-ready feedstocks. &nbsp;Although it is almost certain that no individual biogenic feedstock is available at the scale needed to supply the entire global aviation industry, as McDonald says, every little bit counts. Whether that feedstock is available in millions or billions of tons, there could be a place for each one within the SAF industry. Economics, supply chain logistics and processing technology will determine which feedstocks will gain the most momentum in the market. Author: Katie Schroeder&nbsp; Associate Editor, SAF Magazine&nbsp; Katie.schroeder@bbiinternational.com

2024-08-26 - Expanding the Feedstock Arsenal (SAF Magazine)

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New and unique feedstocks abound for the SAF industry, offering significant carbon reduction potential for the aviation industry. 

Expanding the Feedstock Arsenal

The U.S. sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) industry has been stuck on the runway in recent years as investment, construction and production capacity have struggled to keep up with lofty promises and goals, but help is on the way from an unlikely source: renewable diesel.As renewable diesel producers in a suddenly crowded space trudge through lackluster margin conditions in 2024, they’re increasingly eyeing the possibility of switching to SAF. Considering the current size of the SAF market, taking on new volumes from renewable diesel could provide meaningful growth.In 2023, renewable diesel volumes used to generate renewable identification number (RIN) credits under the Renewable Fuel Standard topped 2.9 billion gallons, a 52% jump from 1.9 billion gallons in 2022, according to data from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Through the first half of 2024, volumes totaled 1.6 billion gallons, well on pace to top 2023’s record. However, margins that regularly topped $2 per gallon in those early years of growth have dwindled to well below $1 per gallon for much of 2024.In contrast, SAF volumes totaled a little more than 26 million gallons in 2023, a small increase from less than 16 million gallons in 2022, EPA data shows. At the 2024 midpoint, SAF volumes topped 51 million gallons, already nearly doubling 2023’s total volume, but we’re still a far cry from the expectations set forth in recent years.At least 43 airlines have committed to use about 4.3 billion gallons of SAF in 2030, according to the International Air Transport Association. The Biden Administration in its 2021 SAF Grand Challenge set a goal of boosting domestic SAF production to 3 billion gallons per year by 2030. In July, the U.S. Energy Information Administration increased its forecast for SAF production to reach 51,000 barrels per day (b/d), or 460 million gallons, in 2025, up from 19,000 b/d (30.6 million gallons) in 2023.So, where’s this anticipated growth coming from? Largely, from existing renewable diesel producers switching to SAF. Phillips 66 said in June that its Rodeo facility in California had reached its target of 50,000 barrels per day of renewable fuel, of which 10,000 barrels per day are SAF. That ratio of renewable diesel to SAF production has to date been the optimal formulation for renewable diesel producers, according to refinery consultant Andy Lipow, president of Lipow Oil Associates.RD, SAF Ratios&nbsp; Lipow said the lightest part of renewable diesel in the production process can be distilled off to make SAF at the expense of renewable diesel, but extra equipment is required. He said refineries have several important factors to consider when weighing whether to produce more renewable diesel or more SAF. “When you think about SAF versus renewable diesel, you always go back to the traditional refinery model where you’re looking for the best possible margin,” Lipow said. “Just like when refiners are making decisions around what kind of crude to process and products you want to make, you have to produce the fuels that make the most sense.”When refineries produce more SAF, Liplow said, they also make more renewable naphtha and renewable liquefied petroleum gas, which is “worth way less” than renewable diesel. Lipow also pointed out that SAF generates only 1.6 RIN credits per gallon, while renewable diesel typically generates 1.7 RIN credits per gallon. When OPIS assessed D4 biomass-based diesel RINs at an average price of $1.66 per RIN in 2022 and $1.35 per RIN in 2023, that extra tenth of a RIN added 17 cents and 14 cents, respectively, to the renewable diesel price premium over SAF. Compare that to the first half of 2024, when we assessed D4 RINs at an average of 54 cents per RIN, and it puts renewable diesel’s premium to SAF at only 5 cents.The majority of renewable diesel and SAF volumes have gone to California to take advantage of the state’s Low Carbon Fuel Standard incentives. The 1.97 billion gallons of renewable diesel consumed in the state in 2023 carried an average carbon intensity (CI) score of around 42.5, while SAF’s 23 million gallons had an average score of 45.2. The lower the CI score, the more LCFS credits a renewable fuels producer can generate, but similar to the currently downtrodden RINs incentive, an LCFS credit averaging $58 per credit through the first half of 2024 hardly moves the needle compared to $98 per credit seen in 2022 and $73 per credit in 2023.Various tax incentives also account for slices of the margin pie. The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 created a two-year, $1.25-per-gallon credit for SAF blends that reduce carbon emissions by at least 50% compared to conventional jet fuel. For every additional percentage point in reduced emissions, the credit increases by 1 cent, up to a cap of $1.75 per gallon. Beginning in 2025, that tax credit will be replaced by the Clean Fuel Production credit, which will be offered to transportation fuels with a CI score of no more than 50. Credits will be rewarded at rates of 35 cents per gallon to $1.75 per gallon for SAF. That credit will be in effect through 2026.An existing $1-per-gallon biomass-based diesel blenders tax credit is slated to expire at the end of this year, but a group of lawmakers in July introduced a House bill proposing to extend it for another year, so it’s not necessarily dead yet. How the tax credit situation plays out for the rest of 2024 could greatly impact the choice between renewable diesel and SAF in 2025.Either way, the Diamond Green Diesel joint venture between Valero and Darling will be full-steam ahead with its $315 million project to upgrade approximately 50% of its current 470 MMgy production capacity at its Port Arthur, Texas, facility to SAF. &nbsp;“There is a premium for SAF over RD,” said Eric Honeyman, Valero’s vice president of renewables operations and low-carbon fuels, during a recent earnings call. “It's going to give us a margin that will be stronger than renewable diesel, and our outlook is that it will meet the economics of our project.”DGD, which uses low-carbon-intensive feedstocks like used cooking oil and waste fats, will also enjoy a competitive advantage over SAF producers using crop-based feedstocks. The European Union will require a 2% SAF blend beginning next year, which would equate to nearly 750 million gallons, based on the EU’s 2023 consumption of jet fuel. Since SAF made from crop-based biofuels cannot be used toward the mandate, DGD will likely see strong European demand for the roughly 235 million gallons of SAF it plans to produce next year in Port Arthur.Lipow added that SAF producers would be wise to target states that offer SAF incentives, such as Illinois, Washington, Minnesota and Nebraska.Regardless of which incentives and economic factors ultimately tip the scales, it’s evident that SAF’s future is getting brighter as renewable diesel producers make the switch for stronger margins. Author: Jordan Godwin&nbsp;&nbsp; Director of Biofuels Markets, OPIS&nbsp;&nbsp; jgodwin@opisnet.com

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Sustainable aviation fuel markets have been slow to produce substantial volumes, but renewable diesel producers facing  depressed margins are ready to flip the switch. 

SAF Production Set to Grow Amid Renewable Diesel Switching

For the aviation industry, sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) is one of the major levers to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from flying. According to a report from the International Air Transport Association, SAF’s growth trajectory will continue in 2024 with an expected production of 1.5 million metric tons (495 million gallons). Though this is already tripling the SAF production of 2023, it will still only account for 0.53% of aviation’s total global fuel consumption. It is clear there is no time to wait in the fight against climate change, so what are the ways to increase SAF production and accessibility from a producer’s perspective?&nbsp;Investing in Renewable Products Production Capacity&nbsp;&nbsp; The key to increasing SAF production is investing in renewable products production capacity, but with a market in its early stages of development, it also requires vision and commitment to make the necessary investments. In the early 2000s, Neste made the decision to invest in solutions to combat climate change, focusing on renewable fuels. This led to the first renewables-only refineries in Singapore and the Netherlands that produced mainly renewable diesel, as part of the company’s transformation journey.Fast forward to 2018, after observing the success achieved by renewable diesel in decarbonizing road transportation and recognizing the need for more renewable fuels to reduce emissions from other heavy-duty sectors like aviation, Neste made the decision to expand production capacity at the Singapore refinery. Completed in 2023, the expansion doubled the refinery's total production capacity and included the capability to produce up to 1 million tons of SAF per year.Following the Singapore investment decision, Neste also decided to modify its existing renewables refinery in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, to enable up to 500,000 tons of SAF production. This modification is nearing completion and will increase Neste’s total global SAF production capability to 1.5 million tons per annum in 2024.Regulatory support and investor interest are crucial for encouraging the development of new renewable fuels production and we see encouraging developments. What will also help ramp up production is converting conventional refineries to renewable fuels production. Not only can refineries produce lower-emission fuel to combat climate change, they also can leverage subsidies and tax breaks to do so. Even better, processing renewable raw materials can help refiners achieve their environmental goals.Strategizing Raw Materials Collection, Expanding the Pool&nbsp; Neste uses sustainably sourced, 100% renewable waste and residue raw materials, such as used cooking oil and animal fat waste to produce SAF. These raw materials are sourced globally from over 60 countries. In the United States alone, acquisitions of companies that are specialized in used cooking oil (UCO) collection give Neste the access to UCO from over 85,000 locations, which include restaurants, theaters, sports venues, airports and more.Industry reports estimate the global availability of waste and residue oils and fats, which can be used to produce renewable fuels such as SAF, could exceed 40 million tons per year by 2030. What we are doing is leveraging these immediately available resources to produce drop-in solutions that can help to mitigate the effects of climate change.In addition to efficiently collecting waste and residue materials, constantly exploring the possibility of using new generations of raw materials for renewable fuels production is important, too. In the future, SAF may be produced from other renewable resources such as algae, forestry waste, or even via power-to-X.The research and development of power-to-X technologies is one of Neste’s key focus areas of innovation. Renewable hydrogen produced by green electricity and carbon capture and utilization play an important role in combating climate change. Low-emission e-fuels produced using these technologies are particularly suitable for segments that are difficult to electrify, such as aviation and marine. E-fuels offer a way to expand the carbon-neutral transport fuel pool beyond biomass-based renewable fuels to replace fossil fuels. In the aviation sector specifically, where the constraints of weight pose challenges, the development of liquid e-fuels suitable for current aircraft and distribution infrastructure must play an important role in reducing the use of fossil fuels.Levering Existing Infrastructure to Enhance SAF Accessibility&nbsp; One of SAF’s greatest advantages is that it’s a drop-in solution, meaning that it can be used in existing engines and fuel infrastructure, opening up the world’s vast existing energy infrastructure. This includes pipelines, storage tanks or terminals that carry fossil products to be easily used for SAF, giving airlines or business aviation companies easier access to this lower-carbon fuel. This is what Neste has been doing.In 2022, Neste’s SAF was delivered to New York’s LaGuardia Airport through the Colonial and Buckeye pipeline systems—two essential pieces of American energy infrastructure. In 2023, Neste commissioned capacity at Vopak’s Los Angeles terminal in California for storing SAF. This partnership further expanded the availability of Neste’s renewable fuels in the Southern California region.It is also key to gain access to airport fuel infrastructure to be able to service airlines that want to use SAF across their operations. It’s not always easy, but examples show that it works: Using the new integrated supply chain into Singapore Changi Airport, Neste delivered its first locally produced SAF to Singapore Airlines, quickly followed by a similar delivery at the airport to Emirates. Collaboration with energy industry partners is an essential part of making SAF more widely available.Keeping the Commitment to Fight Climate Change&nbsp; All of us in the industry—fuel producers, airlines, business aviation companies, corporate and even individual travelers—have the responsibility to reduce aviation emissions. SAF provides a today solution, but we need to work together across the entire value chain to ramp up SAF production and increase accessibility to ensure a more sustainable future for aviation.Author: Alexander Kueper&nbsp;&nbsp; Neste Renewable Aviation Business&nbsp; Vice President

2024-08-26 - Growing SAF Production and Accessibility to Help Cut Aviation Emissions (SAF Magazine)

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The key to increasing SAF production is investing in renewable products production capacity, but it also requires vision and commitment.

Growing SAF Production and Accessibility to Help Cut Aviation Emissions

There is a perfect storm forming over the aviation industry. The imperative to decarbonize is being hit by limited availability of feedstocks, and the near desperation to produce sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) in sufficient quantities in an ambitious timeframe is seeing companies invest billions in unproven technology and processes. Often, with disastrous effect. There is another way—one that is proven, pragmatic and uses technology from established partners that helps mitigate risk to both investment and reputation.would enable SAF production from a wider range of sources, including municipal solid waste.At present, most SAF is being derived either from food and wood crops or from hydroprocessed esters and fatty acids (HEFA); essentially used cooking oil and fats. Last year, 150 million gallons (570 million liters) of SAF was produced. To put that in context, the U.S. alone consumed around 23 billion gallons of jet fuel. There is a limited availability of HEFA and there will be competition with other offtakers, including marine and road transport, and industrial heat. So, meeting global SAF mandates by 2030—whether 10% in the United Kingdon or 3 billion gallons in the United States—is going to require alternative feedstocks—and at some scale. This is a view widely held across the aviation industry. In an interview with the Financial Times, Lauren Riley, chief sustainability officer for United Airlines, expressed confidence that new technologies would enable SAF production from a wider range of sources, including municipal solid waste.A Radical Gasification Solution&nbsp; At its facility in Swindon, U.K., ABSL is using proprietary technology to create clean, tar-free syngas from a mixed waste stream that can easily be converted into liquid fuels, including SAF, in a scalable process. Eighty miles west of London, it is the only plant in the world working in a continuous commercial setting to convert a broad range of solid feedstocks into syngas. ABSL has engaged with world-class engineering partners, including industry specialist Hatch, to produce a clean syngas that can be integrated into standard process trains for SAF, biomethane, biomethanol and biohydrogen production. would enable SAF production from a wider range of sources, including municipal solid waste.ABSL’s proprietary RadGas technology converts wastes and biomass into a high-quality syngas that can be used to produce biofuels and capture biogenic carbon dioxide in an efficient, reliable process. The specialized technology integrates four process steps based on mature technologies and is a key enabler in biohydrogen, biomethanol and SAF production while simultaneously releasing negative emissions credits that help airlines fund and meet their net zero obligations. would enable SAF production from a wider range of sources, including municipal solid waste.The RadGas process first converts waste and biomass materials into raw gas via a circulating fluidized bed gasifier using oxygen and steam. Then, a direct current electric plasma arc furnace reforms tars, and ash is captured. Next, a heat exchanger that cools the syngas also raises steam that is used in the gasifier at the start of the process. Finally, dry and wet gas scrubbing removes fine ash, acid and alkali contaminants, resulting in a clean syngas free from tar and particulates. Plasma is widely accepted as being highly effective at reforming tars, and because operating temperatures are lower than other approaches, process efficiency is high.would enable SAF production from a wider range of sources, including municipal solid waste.RadGas technology provides higher levels of reliability than other processes by using already proven technologies with established operating and maintenance procedures. This reduces technical risk, which is further mitigated by ABSL’s commercial demonstration plant that presently converts 1 metric ton (mt) of waste an hour, removing 10,000 mt of waste away from landfills and converting it into 27 gigawatt-hours of gas per year.would enable SAF production from a wider range of sources, including municipal solid waste.Running all four RadGas process steps in this environment has provided a huge amount of operational and technical learning, based on over 10 years of experience of waste and biomass gasification—a track record that few alternative syngas producers can match. This contrasts with many businesses in the same sector that have tried but failed to produce at industrial scale without fully proving their approach in a pilot or demonstration plant. In particular, the high-profile collapse of Fulcrum BioEnergy’s Nevada waste-to-fuel plant in June 2024 has not only cost public and private investors over $1 billion, but it also leaves multiple project developers in the U.S. and U.K. without the model on which they were banking to meet new and challenging SAF mandates.Proven Technology for a Pragmatic Solution&nbsp; As businesses and investors strive for ways to solve the challenges of difficult-to-abate industries like aviation, at the scale required and within a highly ambitious timeframe, there must be innovation and experimentation. However, such initiatives must be tempered with pragmatism and experience. By taking an incremental approach that has been built on a long history using established technologies in its demonstration plant, ABSL provides investors and partners with greater confidence that these SAF challenges and targets can be conquered. This will help pave the way not only for sustainable aviation, but also for wider clean energy applications such as heavy transport, industrial heat and manufacturing feedstocks.Author: Andy Cornell&nbsp; CEO, ABSL Ltd.&nbsp; info@absl.tech&nbsp;&nbsp; +44 01793 832 860

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A proprietary gasification process can address the challenges of producing sustainable aviation fuel at a scale. 

From Municipal Solid Waste to Airmiles: A Pragmatic Approach to Producing SAF 

The hydroprocessed esters and fatty acids (HEFA)-based route to sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) is at the forefront of the transition from traditional fossil fuels to those made from renewable sources. Hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO), also referred to as renewable diesel, has also become a leading biomass-based fuel. The processes used to convert fats, oils and greases (FOG) into finished fuels are well established. However, opportunities exist to improve upon the process used to pretreat the incoming raw materials.The feedstocks from which fatty acid-based SAF is produced contain numerous impurities that can negatively impact the conversion process. Contaminants such as chlorides, phosphorus and metals contribute to premature catalyst deactivation, mechanical corrosion and potential process instability. Waste oils and lower-quality feedstocks are gaining popularity, but impurity levels are much higher, which further increases process complexity and the risk of complications. Therefore, the pretreatment unit is a critical step in the conversion process.Physical refining has been the technology of choice. Originally developed for the edible oils and oleochemical markets, the process consists of water or acid degumming, mechanical separation using centrifuges, and dry pretreatment with bleaching earth. Additional steps and multiple units may be required as contaminant levels increase. Although capable of removing impurities, more severe treatment to reach ultra-low levels of key contaminants is only possible with significant additional investment.Sulzer’s technology for pretreatment uses thermal cracking to treat feedstocks prior to hydrotreating. In a process analogous to refinery visbreaking, the fats and oils are converted using heat to break the chemical bond and reduce the molecular weight. The typical targets of FOG pretreatment—metals, phosphorus and chlorides—are reduced to levels below which the hydrotreater unit's performance will not be impacted. The triglyceride and fatty acid molecules are cracked into distillate-range hydrocarbons that are a mixture of paraffins, olefins and aromatics, along with some unconverted oils. The process does not require mechanical separation, nor does it use catalyst or chemicals. Product properties and yield profile are determined by operating severity and internal recycle rate.In addition to breaking down the fats and oil into shorter-chain hydrocarbons, the process generates a light ends stream, which is comprised of light gases from C1 to C4. Because hydrogen is not added to the unit, oxygen is removed via decarboxylation. Approximately half of the oxygen present in the raw feed will be taken out with the offgas. The remainder will be removed by hydroprocessing in the downstream unit. Some aqueous waste is also generated in small quantities that can be recycled or treated.Using the pretreat unit to achieve partial conversion of the feedstock introduces several optimizations that are not possible with physical refining. By implementing a more severe form of pretreatment, the range of feedstocks that can be used is widened, including those of lower quality. A variety of feeds have been studied, including distillers corn oil, soybean oil, used cooking oil and waste chicken fats. Results showed phosphorus and chlorides less than 1 weight parts per million (wppm) each, and metals are less than 10 wppm. The process performance indicated here was achieved in a commercial plant that began operation in 2023. The ultralow impurity levels reached in the commercial plant confirm the results obtained earlier in pilot plant studies.Additionally, hydrogen requirements are reduced. Typical grassroots HVO and HEFA units consist of two stages: deoxygenation followed by isomerization. Conventional processes typically require hydrogen consumption greater than 2,500 standard cubic feet per barrel (scf/bbl) or 410 normal cubic meter/cubic meters, (Nm3/m3). However, the partially converted product obtained by thermal cracking the feedstock will require less hydrogen downstream. This is because a portion of the oxygen has already been removed, and the molecules have cracked to distillate-range hydrocarbons. Because of this, the hydrotreater will be smaller, and hydrogen consumption reduced by up to 60%.With such a significant reduction in hydrogen consumption, further economic efficiencies can be gained by operators focused on production of HVO. As outlined above, triglycerides that have been thermally cracked become a mixture of distillate-range hydrocarbons and a portion of unconverted or underconverted feedstock. These distillate hydrocarbons and partially converted triglycerides need only minimal treatment to remove the remaining oxygen and tune the material to meet the necessary HVO specifications. Furthermore, deoxygenation and isomerization, which typically requires two stages, can now be accomplished in a single reactor. In this scenario, the CAPEX savings can be as much as 50%. Base metal catalyst may also be used for isomerization, which reduces cost as well.Adjusting the operating conditions of the pretreatment unit, namely the amount of internal recycling, will also have an influence on the final product from the hydrotreater. With a once-through design, the thermal cracking followed by hydrotreating can produce a diesel product with 28 degrees Fahrenheit (-2 degrees Celsius) cloud point with &nbsp;approximately 1,230 scf/bbl (200 Nm3/m3) hydrogen consumption. By recycling the unconverted oils from the cracking reactor, the cloud point and hydrogen consumption are reduced to 2 F and 960 scf/bbl (159 Nm3/m3), respectively.Finally, the selection of pretreatment, hydrotreating and hydrogen generation technologies for a biofuels refinery will have a direct impact on the facility’s economics and carbon footprint. Producers and sellers are incentivized or mandated, depending on jurisdiction, to produce a fuel that adheres to ever-decreasing carbon intensity targets. Considering the optimizations discussed above, thermal cracking pretreatment has a lower carbon footprint relative to the conventional technologies. Even though CO2 is a product in the process offgas, the lower utility requirements, reduction in hydrogen consumption and smaller hydrogen generation unit translates to a lower carbon intensity of up to 13%, which for a 10,000 barrel-per-day HVO complex means a reduction in CO2 emissions of up to 125,000 metric tons per year.Key Takeaways&nbsp; The choice of pretreatment technology is a critical decision given the impact on downstream processing and overall final product quality. An effective thermal cracking technology is a more efficient and flexible process to remove impurities from fats, oils and greases and convert them into distillate while lowering greenhouse gas emissions from the fuels complex.Author: Matthew Clingerman&nbsp; Head of Licensing&nbsp;&nbsp; Technology Development&nbsp; Sulzer Chemtech&nbsp; www.sulzer.com

2024-08-26 - The Contaminant Challenge: Boosting Efficiency and Flexibility with Pretreatment (SAF Magazine)

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The choice of pretreatment technology is a critical decision given the impact on downstream processing and final product quality.

The Contaminant Challenge: Boosting Efficiency and Flexibility with Pretreatment

In a Q&amp;A interview, Milica Folić, production line director at technology provider Topsoe, shares perspective on the current state of play in the SAF market, regional differences in the SAF landscape and what the future might hold in terms of technology and production pathways.&nbsp;What recent decisions have been made regarding the construction of SAF production plants, and where are these plants being built? We continue to see a significant interest in SAF technologies worldwide, primarily aimed at exporting to regions with regulatory mandates such as the EU-27 and the United Kingdom. For Hydroprocessed esters and fatty acids (HEFA), some final investment decisions (FIDs) have been made this year for a few new plants, particularly in Europe, and recently we also saw one case in Asia. Coprocessing has also gained significant momentum, with two catalyst charges sold for startups after this summer and engagements with over 20 refineries globally (both for SAF and HVO).It remains uncertain how these coprocessing projects, which are primarily for the 2025 EU mandate of 2% SAF, will affect standalone HEFA projects. We have, however, also seen some projects being delayed or canceled. &nbsp;For eSAF, there are no FIDs as yet, but detailed studies on feedstock supply and risk mitigation across the supply chain are ongoing. This is not so surprising, given that dedicated eSAF mandates go into effect in 2030, and these projects require renewable electricity, green hydrogen and CO2 capture before the final synthesis to eFuel.How are feedstock selection and availability being affected by the increase in capacity deployed and regulations?&nbsp; Feedstock supply remains a challenge, with supply agreements being crucial. For HEFA, there is a high focus on waste oils and fats for SAF production in the European Union and U.K. Current estimates of waste oils and fats range between 30 million to 40 million tons, which translates to 24 million to 32 million tons of HEFA, assuming an 80% yield. New feedstocks such as intermediate oilseed crops like carinata and camelina, which were added to Annex IX this year, need to be scaled. For eSAF, the Renewable Fuels of Non-Biological Origin (RFNBO) criteria pose some challenges to the supply and business case. For solid waste-to-fuels projects, while availability is not an issue, some critical considerations include logistics, supply chain and technology such as gasification followed by Fischer-Tropsch (FT).As you also mentioned, a couple of large SAF projects have been canceled, put on hold or delayed. What are some possible reasons behind it, and what can done to avoid such slowdowns?There are various potential reasons for these delays or cancelations. These could include a focus on short-term investments over long-term targets, higher margins on fossil fuels (at the moment), or midterm uncertainty in the SAF market and pricing. It is tricky to give one definite answer to this. We also need to consider whether other factors are also impacting the landscape—factors such as local, long-term feedstock availability, or the absence of off-take agreements.With mandates multiplying and growing demand outweighing supply, SAF is still an enticing market. What we might see is that some of these projects have been just put on hold to reassess their viability once SAF production increases and prices stabilize. If a strong business case emerges, fuel producers will proceed with SAF production.What are the geographical differences in the renewable fuels landscape?&nbsp; The renewable fuels landscape varies significantly by region. In countries like the United States, incentives such as the Inflation Reduction Act’s Production Tax Credit support domestic production, which should make the U.S. SAF market largely self-sufficient in the future. In regions with SAF mandates, such as the EU-27, U.K., and British Columbia in Canada, there is strong interest in importing from other regions to meet compliance and sustainability criteria.Regions like Japan, India, Brazil, Singapore and the United Arab Emirates are preparing for SAF mandates but require further clarity on obligations, penalties, incentives and greenhouse gas emission calculation methodologies. Meanwhile, some countries without SAF discussions, such as certain parts of Asia and South America, have fuel producers ready to export to regulated regions.Are we seeing mandates for SAF being expanded globally? What are the most recent developments?&nbsp; Yes, more countries are considering SAF mandates. For instance, the UAE has a 1% SAF mandate for 2031, Singapore aims for 1% by 2023 and 3%-5% by 2030, and India targets 1% SAF in 2027 and 2% in 2028 for international flights. Japan aims for 10% SAF by 2030. Discussions regarding SAF roadmaps, including feedstock mapping, technology evaluation, and regulatory options, are ongoing in Türkiye, New Zealand, South Korea, Australia, China, Chile, Colombia, Malaysia and Indonesia.When does coprocessing make sense, and where is it allowed?&nbsp; In coprocessing, fossil fuel feedstock, e.g., crude oil, is partly replaced with renewable feedstock (HEFA-based) such as vegetable oil, animal fat or used cooking oil.These are processed together to produce partially renewable fuel. Coprocessing can be conducted in several hydroprocessing units within a refinery, such as a kerosene hydrotreater, diesel hydrotreater or hydrocracker. This method allows existing refineries to easily integrate renewable feedstocks into their production processes without extensive infrastructural alterations.Coprocessing is becoming increasingly popular as it more quickly addresses the rising demand for SAF, and with lower capital expenditures. This method enables fuel producers to bring SAF to the market promptly while perhaps awaiting the development of new, specialized processing units that require significant investments and lengthy timelines.Coprocessing of fatty acid-based feedstocks in a hydroprocessing plant is allowed by ASTM D1655 up to 5% by volume. The EU-27 requires Carbon-14 measurements to monitor biogenic carbon, making coprocessing in a kerosene hydrotreater the preferred option.What pathways are being deployed today, and what is the timeline for other pathways?&nbsp; Currently, eight standalone pathways are approved in ASTM D7566, and three coprocessing pathways are approved in ASTM D1655. Numerous new pathways, both standalone and coprocessing, are under discussion in various ASTM committees, highlighting the ongoing development and future potential in the SAF industry.Topsoe has prioritized building an extensive feedstock library, developing solutions for various SAF pathways and accelerating the more established methods like HEFA. The HEFA pathway dominates currently, with around 85% of the announced global capacity for 2030, according to SkyNRG’s Sustainable Aviation Fuel Market Outlook 2024. At Topsoe, we are seeing strong interest from refineries in coprocessing, which has solid short-term potential. The remaining 2030 capacity will be provided mainly by alcohol-to-jet, along with others, including Fischer-Tropsch and e-SAF.We are also active in this area and announced a joint venture with Sasol, forming Zaffra to advance SAF production via Sasol’s Fischer-Tropsch and Topsoe’s related Power-to-X &nbsp;and HEFA technology solutions. Elsewhere, Arcadia eFuels, amongst others, selected Sasol and Topsoe as technology providers for the first commercial eFuels plant in Denmark, which will produce approximately 100 million liters (26.4 million gallons) of e-fuels per year via their proprietary technology.Are there any similarities in what new entrants and traditional refineries looking to diversify or revamp are seeking in terms of a technology partner in SAF?&nbsp; Both new entrants and established producers looking at the SAF sector for opportunities are, to some extent, in unchartered territory if you consider regulation, incentivization, multiple production pathways, feedstocks and developing technologies. There is a lot to navigate. So, we are seeing a need for both technology and experience, something that is not common in an emerging arena.Established refineries know us and know that Topsoe have decades of experience optimizing traditional refinery businesses, which makes us very interesting for those exploring the production of SAF—for instance, via coprocessing. The fact that we have so many running references for HydroFlex and a 70-year catalyst business is obviously important for new entrants, even if we are not as well known to them. Both new and established fuel producers are interested in our ability to help navigate a tricky landscape and be a long-term knowledge partner, and not just a licensor.We are highly committed to the SAF market and believe HydroFlex’s flexibility in handling various feedstocks is crucial in the evolving SAF landscape as it provides reliability and agility, allowing for adjustments to meet process changes or those in feedstocks. Together with our leading FT technology offering in partnership with Sasol, it means Topsoe is well placed to meet the growth of the SAF market and the specific needs of customers, regardless of scale, experience and feedstock.&nbsp;

2024-08-26 - Trends, Pathways and Feedstocks (SAF Magazine)

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Milica Folić, production line director at technology provider Topsoe, shares perspective on the current state of play in the SAF market, regional differences in the SAF landscape and what the future might hold in terms of technology and production pathways.

2024 SAF Magazine Issue 2 (with Directory)

Columns

An Election on the Horizon

The Future of Aviation is Now

Featured

Carbon Rebrand

Expanding the Feedstock Arsenal

Contributions

Spotlight: BDI-BioEnergy International | Feedstock Flexibility Front and Center

Spotlight: Clariant | Adsorbents Lead SAF Pretreatment Advances, Cost Optimization

SAF Production Set to Grow Amid Renewable Diesel Switching

Growing SAF Production and Accessibility to Help Cut Aviation Emissions

From Municipal Solid Waste to Airmiles: A Pragmatic Approach to Producing SAF

The Contaminant Challenge: Boosting Efficiency and Flexibility with Pretreatment

Trends, Pathways and Feedstocks

2024 SAF Magazine Issue 2 (with Directory).css-7jxktu{position:absolute;bottom:0px;left:0px;right:0px;height:3px;border-radius:3px;background-color:var(--chakra-colors-brandBlack);}

Columns

An Election on the Horizon

The Future of Aviation is Now

Featured

Carbon Rebrand

Expanding the Feedstock Arsenal

Contributions

Spotlight: BDI-BioEnergy International | Feedstock Flexibility Front and Center

Spotlight: Clariant | Adsorbents Lead SAF Pretreatment Advances, Cost Optimization

SAF Production Set to Grow Amid Renewable Diesel Switching

Growing SAF Production and Accessibility to Help Cut Aviation Emissions

From Municipal Solid Waste to Airmiles: A Pragmatic Approach to Producing SAF

The Contaminant Challenge: Boosting Efficiency and Flexibility with Pretreatment

Trends, Pathways and Feedstocks

2024 SAF Magazine Issue 2 (with Directory)