Rural Solutions Expected to Reach Sustainable Aviation Commitments

SOPERTON, GA – Last Friday, Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm toured a plant that one day will supply more than 30 percent of the nation’s sustainable aviation fuel by 2030.

Granholm and new Georgia Senator Jon Ossoff visited LanzaTech Freedom Pines Biorefinery which is set to open next year producing sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) as well as renewable diesel fuel.

The Department of Energy recently announced a goal of at least 3 billion gallons of sustainable aviation fuel by the year 2030 and the former Michigan governor said she wanted to make sure that the airlines, industrial, and trucking sectors are decarbonized.

“We’re not going to, any time soon, be able to electrify airplanes so we’ve got to have them to run on sustainable fuels, and there will be a 40 percent increase for those fuels by 2050,” Granholm told All Ag News.

Since the global airline industry announced last week a commitment to 100 percent sustainable aviation fuels by 2050, in the U.S. alone that will be 35 billion gallons every year just to meet the demand for the domestic fleet.

“So we’re going to need a lot of new refineries to be able to meet that goal, about 200 new refineries, and we’ll be able to bolt-on equipment to existing refineries if they choose to do this” Granholm explained.

Listen to our full exclusive interview with Secretary Granholm here: http://www.paramountbroadcasting.com/audio/podcasts/2021108Granholm.mp3

Where will the investment come from? She said there’s support for this in the reconciliation bill sitting in Congress “so the pieces are coming together to have the ag and rural community lead in producing sustainable aviation fuels”.
(SOURCE: All Ag News)