by Craig Andres, Laura McMillan (KSN.com)  The State of Kansas is taking a leap to be on the cutting edge of sustainable fuels with a new biofuel plant in southwest Kansas. Officials gathered for a groundbreaking at the SAFFiRE plant in Liberal Wednesday morning.

SAFFiRE stands for Sustainable Aviation Fuel From Renewable Ethanol. It is owned by Southwest Airlines.

The plant will use the corn stalks and husks left over from harvest and turn them into ethanol. The ethanol will then be turned into sustainable aviation fuel, which has an 83% lower carbon footprint than conventional jet fuel.

“At first, we only advocate gathering about 50% of what would be left on the field,” Marykate O’Brien, SAFFiRE chief technology officer, said. “You want to leave some of it there to be able to regenerate the soil.”

The plan is for Liberal to ship the ethanol to Georgia, where the first sustainable aviation fuel plant broke ground in January. The Georgia facility will turn it into aviation fuel, EVENTUALLY producing 10 million gallons a year.

Southwest wants to replace 10% of its aviation fuel with renewable fuel by 2030. The SAFFiRE plant is leasing space from CONESTOGA energy’s Liberal, Kansas site. And the goal is to see what works well and then scale up.

“This is a pilot project, so our goal is to prove this technology can kind of work in an integrated system, to really understand what kind of equipment we need before we really begin to scale up,” O’Brien said.

The U.S. Department of Energy provided initial funding for the plan. Southwest Airlines matched 50% of it. Southwest has the option of buying the ethanol to fuel its planes.

Senator Jerry Moran was at Wednesday’s event. READ MORE

Related articles

• Sen. Moran Leads Kansas Officials in Breaking Ground on Southwest Airlines’ New SAFFiRE Plant in Liberal (Office of Senator Jerry Moran (R-KS))
• Fueling flight: Utilizing biofuels in aviation (U.S. Senator Jerry Moran (R-KS/Washington Times)

• Sen. Jerry Moran leads groundbreaking ceremony on new facility for Southwest Airlines in Liberal (KWCH)

• Sen. Moran Leads Kansas Officials in Breaking Ground on Southwest Airlines’ New SAFFiRE Plant in Liberal (KSCB)

• SAFFiRE Renewables breaks ground on SAF production pilot plant (Biofuels International)

• From the corn field to airfields near you -- SAFFiRE Renewables breaks ground on its pilot sustainable aviation fuel plant in Liberal, Kansas. (Farm Progress/Kansas Farmer)

 

Excerpt from Office of Senator Jerry Moran (R-KS): U.S. Senator Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) – the co-chair of the Senate Sustainable Aviation Caucus – today(August 28, 2024) led the groundbreaking ceremony for Southwest Airlines’ new SAFFiRE plant in Liberal, Kansas.

“This facility’s cutting-edge technology will transform the corn stalks and husks remaining after harvest into ethanol that will be processed into fuel used to fly airplanes,” said Sen. Moran. “With this new energy plant, Liberal will play a key role in developing sustainable aviation fuel that is a cleaner fuel for planes, creates a new market for farmers and brings the United States closer to being energy independent. In addition, China’s recent decision to decrease imports of sorghum makes projects like this even more vital to support our producers.”

The new SAFFiRE plant will use corn stover – the stalks, leaves and cobs that are left over after the corn harvest – to produce renewable ethanol that will be converted into sustainable aviation fuel (SAF).

Sen. Moran was joined today by Tom Nealon, CEO of SAFFiRE; Tom Willis, CEO of Conestoga; Debra Sanning, FAA Deputy Regional Director; Emily Skor, CEO of Growth Energy; Dr. Valerie Sarisky-Reed, Director of the Bioenergy Technologies Office in the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy; Congressman Tracey Mann (KS-01) and Sen. Roger Marshall, M.D. (R-Kan.).

Earlier this year, Sen. Moran introduced the ­Farm to Fly Act, which would help accelerate the production and development of SAF through existing U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) programs.

Sen. Moran also wrote an op-ed on SAF in a special edition of the Washington Times.