A US$50 million grant from Bill Gates-led Breakthrough Energy, discounted loans, and other financial subsidies have caused a plant capable of turning out a lower-emission fuel at the same price as fossil fuel-based options for the first time, reports Bloomberg.
LanzaJet, the startup backed by Breakthrough, is building its first commercial plant in the US state of Georgia and expects to begin production next year.
The facility will double the US capacity for making Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF).
While the global aviation sector is responsible for three per cent of the gases that are warming the planet today, its emissions are rising fast.
SAF is a solution and is a broad label given to aviation-compliant fuel made from more sustainable sources than traditional kerosene-based jet fuel.
LanzaJet's technology takes ethanol from sugarcane in Brazil, waste gas in China, or corn in the US and chemically converts it into SAF and renewable diesel.
The chemistry to convert alcohol to jet fuel was developed 100 years ago but has been refined to work at higher efficiency and lower costs.
However, the process is still energy intensive.
LanzaJet got a loan of $50 million from Microsoft Climate Innovation Fund and secured a grant worth $14 million from the US Department of Energy.
The rest of the $200 million it needs to build the plant will come from LanzaJet's equity holders: LanzaTech, Mitsui & Co, Suncor Energy, British Airways and Shell Plc.
LanzaJet chief executive Jimmy Samartzis declared that Breakthrough Energy's $50 million grant comes at a crucial time, two years into the construction of the Georgia plant.
Mr Samartzis further said it was because inflation in the last year caused the construction costs to balloon. Without that extra money, SAF produced from the plant would cost 25 per cent more than conventional aviation fuel. The grant erases that green premium.
SeaNews Turkey
LanzaJet, the startup backed by Breakthrough, is building its first commercial plant in the US state of Georgia and expects to begin production next year.
The facility will double the US capacity for making Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF).
While the global aviation sector is responsible for three per cent of the gases that are warming the planet today, its emissions are rising fast.
SAF is a solution and is a broad label given to aviation-compliant fuel made from more sustainable sources than traditional kerosene-based jet fuel.
LanzaJet's technology takes ethanol from sugarcane in Brazil, waste gas in China, or corn in the US and chemically converts it into SAF and renewable diesel.
The chemistry to convert alcohol to jet fuel was developed 100 years ago but has been refined to work at higher efficiency and lower costs.
However, the process is still energy intensive.
LanzaJet got a loan of $50 million from Microsoft Climate Innovation Fund and secured a grant worth $14 million from the US Department of Energy.
The rest of the $200 million it needs to build the plant will come from LanzaJet's equity holders: LanzaTech, Mitsui & Co, Suncor Energy, British Airways and Shell Plc.
LanzaJet chief executive Jimmy Samartzis declared that Breakthrough Energy's $50 million grant comes at a crucial time, two years into the construction of the Georgia plant.
Mr Samartzis further said it was because inflation in the last year caused the construction costs to balloon. Without that extra money, SAF produced from the plant would cost 25 per cent more than conventional aviation fuel. The grant erases that green premium.
SeaNews Turkey