Ground-Breaking Partnership Between Colombia and Clean Tech Pioneer Alder Fuels Will Support Decarbonizing Air Travel

(Alder Fuels/PR Newswire) In a historic first, Colombia could become a "green" crude, carbon-negative exporter thanks to a strategic alliance between the Government of Colombia and Alder Fuels, LLC.

Alder is a cleantech company that pioneered groundbreaking technologies to convert forestry and other woody residue into Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) at a large scale to be used by commercial airlines.

Through this partnership, which was announced during COP26, the UN Climate Change Conference of Parties, Colombia will tap into its vast agricultural infrastructure and incentivize local farmers to supply biomass feedstock for conversion into sustainable low-carbon crude. Alder's refining process will convert the forestry and crop residue, as well as regenerative agricultural crops that rejuvenate soil, into drop-in replacement "green" crude used for producing aviation fuel.

"Colombia is committed with the importance of tackling climate change. Therefore, our Ministry of Agriculture and Alder Fuels, LLC signed an MOU during the world´s most important Climate Change scenery, COP26. This MOU has the objective to produce Sustainable Aviation Fuel - SAF from biomass farming in the country by guaranteeing small farmers, the product commercialization through "Agricultura por Contrato" (Contract Farming). It will also promote public–private alliances that attract investment to the country and will contribute with Colombia´s objective of reducing 51 percent of GHG emissions by 2030, become carbon neutral and climate resilient by 2050 as well as helping the aviation industry reach carbon neutrality goals which will not only have an impact in Colombia but in the world," said Iván Duque Márquez, President of Colombia.

"The leadership from President Duque and Minister Navarro demonstrates how nations can develop innovative approaches to concurrently address global carbon reduction goals, support local economies and improve quality of life at home and abroad," said Bryan Sherbacow, president and CEO of Alder Fuels. "The Alder-Colombia partnership is a model for advancing agricultural practices and scaling technology that will one day decarbonize aviation."

This announcement further positions Alder Fuels as an emerging force within the green energy economy. In September, United Airlines and Honeywell announced a multimillion-dollar joint venture with Alder Fuels, wherein both companies would invest in Alder Fuels and Alder would provide United Airlines 1.5 billion gallons of SAF, the largest SAF purchase ever announced at the time. Alder Fuels' first-of-its kind technology will increase the volume of SAF produced and the type of renewable feedstocks that can be converted into carbon-negative SAF to reduce fossil jet fuel consumption and benefit the flying public.

Alder Fuels, founded by biofuel and aviation industry entrepreneur Bryan Sherbacow, is a process technology and project development company in the low-carbon energy industry. Alder is commercializing a process to produce crude oil that is carbon negative, scalable and cost-competitive with the petroleum it replaces. Critical to rapid, world-scale deployment, the process will be compatible with the existing petroleum reﬁning and logistics infrastructure. The company's collaboration with United Airlines and Honeywell UOP is expected to propel use of new forms of biomass to power commercial aircraft, reduce fossil fuel consumption and commercialize technologies beneﬁting the ﬂying public. It builds upon a decade-old relationship among the stakeholders in pioneering commercialization of industry-leading SAF technology. For more information about Alder Fuels, visit http://www.alderfuels.com/. READ MORE

Alder Fuels, Colombian government partner to supply feedstock for green crude-to-SAF model (Alder Fuels/Biobased Diesel Daily)