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Gevo lands $1.4 billion loan to support South Dakota sustainable aviation fuel plant

Renewable fuels company Gevo has been awarded a $1.4 billion loan guarantee from the U.S. Department of Energy to support a sustainable aviation fuel plant in South Dakota.

Tad Hepner, VP for Strategy and Innovation with the Renewable Fuels Association tells Brownfield…

“What this facility is going to look like, it’s probably going to be the lowest carbon intensity, sustainable aviation fuel that we’re going to see,” he says.

The Net-Zero 1 facility will produce about 60 million gallons of sustainable aviation fuel, sourced 100% from U.S. feedstocks, as well as about 1.3 billion pounds of protein and animal feed products, and approximately 30 million pounds of corn oil per year.

Hepner says it could also fuel momentum for a proposed carbon pipeline.

“I think this facility is going to be something of a role model facility and it’s going to be designed from the ground up to have the latest technology as well as the consideration for what lower carbon intensity really means,” he says.

In a statement, Gevo CEO Patrick Guber said the announcement is a critical step forward for the industry that, if finalized, could open additional capital investments into commercialization of sustainable aviation fuels.

Hepner agrees…

“This could be a catalyst that that brings a lot of those types of projects to the Midwest, not only South Dakota, but Minnesota and Iowa as well as some places where they have favorable geology for sequestration,” he says.

Hepner says the project is likely the largest economic development project for South Dakota.

The Department of Energy also this week awarded Montana Renewables a $1.4 billion loan guarantee to support expansion of a facility that will utilize vegetable oils, fats and greases to produce SAF and other renewable fuels.