Gevo’s Jet Bet Bonanza: A Series of SAF Offtake Stunners from Denver’s Biofuels Broncos

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) This week we received the long-anticipated news that Gevo closed on the purchase of approximately 245 acres near Lake Preston, South Dakota for its first commercial scale sustainable aviation fuel facility, Net-Zero 1. The site was optioned for purchase by Gevo in December of 2020, and now groundbreaking is expected in September 2022. This project schedule should allow Gevo to begin delivery of initial volumes of SAF in 2025 to fulfill a portion of existing supply agreements. Net-Zero 1 is expected to produce 55 MGPY of SAF, or 62 MGPY of total hydrocarbon volumes.

The offtake deals have been flying fast and furious, Some airlines are making token purchases — some are laying down plenty of chips on the table.

The American Airlines deal

The most striking perhaps is the Gevo agreement with American Airlines for the purchase of 500 million gallons of sustainable aviation fuel over five years. Striking because the order considerably exceeds the production volume of Net-Zero 1, and starts in 2026, which has Net-Zero 2 and or 3 written all over it.

The American Airlines fuel sales agreement is the latest in a series of agreements that have seen airlines and other businesses partnering with Gevo to join the front lines of the energy transition. Collectively they have expressed the intent to purchase an estimated 375 million gallons of advanced renewable fuel. The strategies behind their programs are a game plan for the energy transition.

The Aer Lingus deal

The Finnair deal

The Japan Airlines deal

About Net Zero commitments

All the agreements are subject to Gevo developing, financing and constructing the facilities, of course. Gevo uses the Argonne GREET model established by Argonne National Laboratory with the support of the U.S. Department of Energy to measure greenhouse gas emissions. Argonne GREET provides an accurate lifecycle inventory of carbon and leverages the decarbonizing impact of sustainable agriculture and fuel-production practices. Gevo’s Net-Zero business systems are expected to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions to net-zero over the entire lifecycle of each gallon of advanced renewable fuel produced, including its SAF, and that includes the emissions resulting from burning the fuel in engines to power transportation. And of course, Gevo actually has to finance, build and operate the plants.

Reaction from the stakeholders

The Bottom Line

The news this summer is slightly bifurcated. The groundbreaking relates back to Net Zero 1, the announces for the future and in particular the American Airlines commitment are essentially about Net Zero Other — NZ1 being too small to handle all these offtakes. NZ1’s major customer. We suspect it’s Delta, which signed a 75 million gallon per year agreement with Gevo back in March, more about that here, and the original 2019 10 million gallon per year deal is here: READ MORE