World’s largest ethanol-to-jet fuel plant finalized, 250mn gallon yearly output | The 60-acre facility will revolutionize the global aviation industry by providing a scalable supply of low-carbon jet fuel.
https://interestingengineering.com/transportation/worlds-largest-ethanol-fuel-plant
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From the article: Iowa-based Summit Agricultural Group subsidiary Summit Next Gen, a sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) production platform, has announced that it will set up the world’s largest ethanol-to-jet (ETJ) SAF facility at Houston Ship Channel in Texas.
The 60-acre facility will revolutionize the global aviation industry by providing a scalable supply of low-carbon jet fuel.
The purchase and sale agreement for the site also provides Summit Next Gen with an exclusive option to purchase an additional 40-acre contiguous tract, which would enable capital-efficient expansions as SAF demand continues to grow.
The global aviation industry demands over 100 billion gallons of jet fuel annually and is expected to double in the next 20 years with increasing passenger demand.
Governments, companies, and consumers are demanding low-carbon alternatives to traditional jet fuel; however, the current production of SAF still needs to be challenged by the undersupply of feedstocks consisting of vegetable oils, animal fats, and waste oils.
With its new facility, Summit Next Gen aims to produce 250 million gallons of SAF annually.
Ethanol is such a bad start of this, can’t think of a worse biomass-based solution. Just for perspective: plants have about 2-3% efficiency to convert solar energy vs PV with 20+. And in this process you don’t even use the whole plant’s carbon bound energy but only the ethanol derived from seeds.
Arable land is not an unlimited resource. Energy and Food should not compete in such an unfortunate way.
ethanol is a scam. By the time you factor in all the fuel and costs needed to grow and process it, it has very little to do with being green or efficient and everything to do with political subsidies.