Jet Zero Australia Pty Ltd is pleased to attend the groundbreaking of LanzaJet’s Freedom Pines Fuels Project, the Australian company’s primary reference plant for its flagship Project Ulysses Alcohol to Jet (ATJ) Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) project in North Queensland, Australia.
LanzaJet’s Freedom Pines Project is the first commercial scale plant to fully commercialise ATJ production technology, converting bioethanol into 10M gallons (38M litres) per year of SAF and renewable diesel.
Jet Zero Australia and LanzaJet representatives joined US government officials, industry leaders, and investors in attending the ceremony at the site of the new biorefinery in Soperton, Georgia. Keynote speakers from the United States Government who attended this important milestone included US Secretary of Agriculture, Tom Vilsack, and Deputy Secretary of Energy, David Turk.
The commencement of full operations at the Freedom Pines Fuels Plant represents a significant de-risking event for Jet Zero Australia’s Ulysses Project, which is targeting the use of LanzaJet’s patented ATJ production technology to develop a project three times larger, producing 102M litres per year of SAF and 11M litres pa of renewable diesel.
Project Ulysses intends to transform agricultural by-products taken from sustainable sources into biofuel that has the potential to reduce CO2 emissions in Australia’s commercial aviation sector, on a net lifecycle basis, by approximately 70% versus traditional fossil-based jet fuel.
Jet Zero Australia anticipates that information collected from the Freedom Pines Fuels Plant over the course of six months of operations will be integrated into the Ulysses Project’s Front End Engineering and Design (FEED), both expediting Project Ulysses’ delivery and further reducing technical risks associated with the ATJ process.
Jet Zero CEO Ed Mason said: “It is great to celebrate this key event for LanzaJet in Soperton, Georgia. Jet Zero appreciates how much hard work has gone into reaching this milestone over many years from LanzaJet’s team, their project partners, and the US Department of Energy. Jet Zero’s technical team is working with LanzaJet to closely integrate the lessons from Freedom Pines’s operations into the Ulysses SAF Project in North Queensland.”
LanzaJet CEO Jimmy Samartzis said: “Today is testament to the conviction required by industry, government, and funders to advance innovation and stretch the boundaries of what is achievable to address decarbonization and tackle climate change. This is a historic milestone in a long history of firsts for LanzaJet, the United States, and the SAF industry globally.”
“Our novel LanzaJet ethanol to SAF process technology is now deployed at our commercial plant in Georgia which will convert ethanol into drop-in SAF. As we start-up the plant, we will continue to refine our technology, while launching our efforts to advance new sustainable fuels projects globally. Between feedstock versatility, efficiency, and economics that enable scale in the US and globally, we stand ready to meet aviation’s decarbonization goals established at the United Nations and country ambitions, such as the U.S. SAF Grand Challenge.”
