Sugar Valley Energy to produce SAF at biorefinery

The move will help address a key objective of the aviation industry, which aims to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2050. The adoption of SAF at SVE will help contribute toward this goal in a strategic location near seven Southern California airports as well as numerous general aviation and military airports and is responsive to a significant renewable energy niche. “Ultimately, diversifying our product offering to the broadest possible customer base will accelerate our financing process,” said David Rubenstein, President and CEO of California Ethanol + Power, parent company developing SVE.

SVE is a sustainable 160-acre biorefinery campus now in the final stage of development, and is comprised of the ethanol production facility, a bioelectric power island and wastewater treatment facility. In addition to SAF, sustainable energy products produced at SVE will include low-carbon sugarcane ethanol for transportation fuels blending, renewable natural gas (RNG), renewable diesel (RD), electricity, CO₂, hydrogen and local wastewater treatment connections to benefit regional businesses and residents.

The project is expected to support as many as 15 000 jobs during construction and first year of operation, as well as approximately 2000 agricultural jobs at full scale feedstock production. The sugarcane feedstock will be grown locally, directly controlled by SVE and fully contracted with nearby Imperial Valley farmers. SVE has developed a robust long-term feedstock programme and envisions growers currently producing alfalfa for animal feed export markets will switch to sugarcane production.

SVE’s SAF will employ alcohol-to-jet (ATJ) technology, a proven solution for commercial production of both SAF and renewable diesel. The technology was first developed and extensively tested by Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), a US Department of Energy (US DOE) National Laboratory. Specifically, the process converts ethanol to synthetic paraffinic kerosene (SPK) and synthetic paraffinic diesel (SPD). The process is an approved pathway to produce SAF in accordance with ASTM D7566 Annex A5, which permits blending up to 50% with conventional jet aviation fuel.

Read the article online at: https://www.hydrocarbonengineering.com/clean-fuels/05022024/sugar-valley-energy-to-produce-saf-at-biorefinery/