Delta Flight from Minneapolis to New York City Using Camelina-Based SAF Departs Sept. 25

by Ron Kotrba (Biobased Diesel Daily) The first Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport flight departure fueled by sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) takes to the skies Sept. 25. Delta Air Lines has designated flight DL 2732 from Minneapolis to New York on Sept. 25 as the symbolic first flight to be fueled in part by SAF from MSP Airport.

The SAF was made from camelina oil grown and crushed in the Upper Midwest. According to the Greater MSP Partnership, this is the first commercial flight in North America to be fueled by camelina-based SAF.

Cargill worked with Minnesota and North Dakota growers last fall to plant 2,000 acres of winter camelina, which was harvested this summer and used as a feedstock for the SAF.

The camelina was processed at Cargill’s West Fargo crush plant in North Dakota and then sent to Montana Renewables in Great Falls, Montana, where it was refined and blended into SAF.

The camelina SAF was sold to Delta and transported by Shell Aviation directly to the MSP Airport fueling facility where it will enter the fuel supply.

Delta will cover the cost of the SAF that would be needed for flight DL 2732 from Minneapolis to New York in recognition of New York Climate Week, displacing conventional jet fuel that is traditionally used.

While this current 7,000-gallon batch SAF was produced and blended in Montana, the Minnesota SAF Hub recently announced that a new SAF blending facility at Flint Hills Resources’ Pine Bend facility will blend SAF locally by late 2025.

Additionally, a Gevo ethanol plant in Luverne, Minnesota, is planning to convert its facility to SAF production in the future. READ MORE

Excerpt from Brownfield Ag News: Delta Air Lines says piping sustainable aviation fuel into two Midwest hubs is an exciting early step toward decarbonizing.

Chief sustainability officer Amelia DeLuca tells Brownfield converting 2,000 acres of winter camelina into about a flight’s worth of fuel is just a small example of what’s possible for the evolving industry.

“We had the opportunity to take a new novel crop, camelina which Cargill was growing in conjunction with the University of Minnesota, and crush it and work with one of our sustainable aviation fuel partners to actually turn it into SAF.”

“Delta uses four billion gallons of jet fuel every year and we will have access to only about 10 million gallons this year, and that’s not including these new feedstocks like camelina,” DeLuca shares.

DeLuca says building out the supply chain will help scale up new feedstocks and markets for farmers.

“While this is great for decarbonization of our industry, there are just such benefits in terms of boosting employment locally, increasing labor income, raising farm income, and so again we want to do this hand in hand with the local communities to make sure that we continue to realize those positive benefits from the farm all the way to the plane,” she says.

DeLuca says she’s also optimistic a pending sustainable aviation fuel tax credit can be passed in Michigan and speed up a clean energy future. READ MORE; includes AUDIO