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by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) After what could be considered a lengthy out-of-town tryout, LanzaJet is now officially launched as a LanzaTech spin-off — Suncor Energy and Mitsui & Co. are investing $15 million and $10 million, respectively, to establish the new venture. All Nippon Airways is also contributing in exchange for accessing off take.
What does LanzaJet do?
It’s not LanzaTech technology, it’s new tech, though built by LanzaTech and can certainly work seamless with that company’s waste gas-to-ethanol tech. LanzaJet upgrades ethanol — anybody’s ethanol — to sustainable aviation fuel. We covered the technology most recently here, and here. And our Multi-Slide Guide to the technology is here.
The next step
The funding will be used to build a demonstration plant that will produce 10 million gallons per year of SAF and renewable diesel starting from sustainable ethanol sources. Production is expected to start in early 2022. This initial investment coupled with participation from ANA will complement the existing $14 million grant from the US Department of Energy, enabling the construction of an integrated biorefinery at LanzaTech’s Freedom Pines site in Soperton, Georgia.
Calling in Jimmy Samartzis
The new CEO of LanzaJet has been announced, too. It’s Jimmy Samartzis, whom the industry came to know during his tenure at United Airlines where he was driving the commercialization of sustainable aviation fuels, it was clear then that he was “Jimmy Smarts“. Samartzis will lead the company through the demonstration and into commercialization.
It’s a new, non-stop financial model
Officially, the word is that Suncor “has contracted to take a significant portion of the SAF and renewable diesel produced at the facility to provide its jet fuel and distillate customers with sustainable energy solutions”. And that Suncor and Mitsui “are aiming to invest further in the construction of commercial production facilities after the demonstration meets all its technical and economic targets.”
Bottom line, as a friend explained, “the investors are committed to build commercial production facilities after the technical and financial KPIs of the commercial demo are met. Passing a stage brings a cash call not a new cash raise.”
That’s going to reduce the cycle time of raising future cash. And if you’ve heard of the model before, it’s being used in pharma right now, and possibly to solve the COVID-19 problem, because it provides speed for the company as it marches towards certification and scale. At the same time, it limits investor exposure.
…
The LanzaJet process can use any source of sustainable ethanol for jet fuel production, including, but not limited to, ethanol made from recycled pollution, the core application of LanzaTech’s carbon recycling platform. Commercialization of this process, called Alcohol-to-Jet (AtJ) has been years in the making, starting with the partnership between LanzaTech and the U.S Energy Department’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL). PNNL developed a unique catalytic process to upgrade ethanol to alcohol-to-jet synthetic paraffinic kerosene (ATJ-SPK) which LanzaTech took from the laboratory to pilot scale.
“Achieving our global climate goals requires scaling new, transformative technologies rapidly. This requires new methods of financing that enable scaling from lab to pilot to demo to commercial without stopping after each step to raise more cash,” said Jennifer Holmgren, CEO of LanzaTech. “Suncor, Mitsui and ANA are stepping up to show that achieving meaningful scale will require new technologies, new business models and new approaches. I am delighted to see LanzaJet take off and to see Jimmy Samartzis lead the team as it brings this sustainable solution to market.” READ MORE
LanzaJet Takes Off (LanzaTech)
New sustainable aviation fuel company prepares for take-off (Biofuels International)
Renewable Fuel Standard Program Anti-Backsliding Determination and Study PUBLIC COMMENT DEADLINE: TBD
(Environmental Protection Agency) Clean Air Act Section 211(v) requires EPA to complete an “anti-backsliding study” to determine whether the renewable