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    Avina Constructing Sustainable Aviation Fuel Plant in Midwest to Decarbonize Chicago O'Hare and Regional Airports

    April 5, 2024
    The facility, engineered to produce 120 million gallons of SAF annually, will utilize an alcohol-to-jet production technology pathway. The SAF derived will have reduced life cycle carbon emissions as compared to conventional jet fuel
    Avina
    661017b913076b001e4fe72d Avina

    Avina, a developer of clean hydrogen and derivative fuels solutions, has announced plans for a sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) plant in the Midwest region, which is expected to begin operations in 2027.

    The facility, engineered to produce 120 million gallons of SAF annually, will utilize an alcohol-to-jet production technology pathway. The SAF derived will have reduced life cycle carbon emissions as compared to conventional jet fuel. 

    The end product will be certified to meet ASTM D7566 standards. While Preliminary Front End Engineering Design (Pre-FEED) for the project is completed, FEED is expected to start in Q2 2024. 

    Although funding commitments for the project through FID have been secured, Avina is having discussions with various strategic and financial investors to fund the project at FID.

    Additionally, Avina has entered into long-term supply agreements with ethanol suppliers to meet the low carbon intensity (CI) ethanol feedstock volume requirements. Substantial volumes of ethanol will be supplied by facilities with operational carbon capture and sequestration processes. 

    The project is estimated to avoid around 840,000 metric tons of aviation-related carbon emissions annually. The project will also leverage existing rail and pipeline infrastructure to deliver the end product to the Chicago O’Hare Airport and other regional airports.

    The US airline industry is experiencing a rising demand for SAF in response to commitments to utilize three billion gallons of SAF by 2030. Avina is collaborating with airline customers and other stakeholders to achieve the target. 

    “The aviation sector accounts for 2% of global CO2 emissions. In recent years, emissions from this sector have been increasing at a faster rate compared to those from rail, road, or shipping," said Vishal Shah, CEO & Founder at Avina Clean Hydrogen. "With the procurement of low CI ethanol from existing production facilities that have CO2 capture and sequestration, we are excited about the project's potential to drive the aviation industry’s decarbonization efforts forward.”

    About the Author

    EnergyTech Staff

    Rod Walton is senior editor for EnergyTech.com. He has spent 14 years covering the energy industry as a newspaper and trade journalist.

    Walton formerly was energy writer and business editor at the Tulsa World. Later, he spent six years covering the electricity power sector for Pennwell and Clarion Events. He joined Endeavor and EnergyTech in November 2021.

    He can be reached at [email protected]. 

    EnergyTech is focused on the mission critical and large-scale energy users and their sustainability and resiliency goals. These include the commercial and industrial sectors, as well as the military, universities, data centers and microgrids.

    Many large-scale energy users such as Fortune 500 companies, and mission-critical users such as military bases, universities, healthcare facilities, public safety and data centers, shifting their energy priorities to reach net-zero carbon goals within the coming decades. These include plans for renewable energy power purchase agreements, but also on-site resiliency projects such as microgrids, combined heat and power, rooftop solar, energy storage, digitalization and building efficiency upgrades.