LanzaJet plans to undertake project development for the SAF manufacturing facility in the United States, with Southwest serving as SAF's anchor offtaker.
The biorefinery is intended to leverage LanzaJet's breakthrough technology, capable of scaling production to the levels required for the decarbonization of aviation through widely available and sustainable raw materials, new commercial solutions based on residues and promising economics. LanzaJet will also support Southwest's efforts to commercialize SAFFiRE technology to process corn stover into ethanol.
“The U.S. is an incredibly important market for us – it is our home, where our technology was developed and scaled, the location of our and the world’s first commercial ethanol-to-SAF plant, and a key opportunity to support the existing U.S. biofuels and ethanol industry with our leading ethanol-to-SAF technology,” said Jimmy Samartzis, CEO of LanzaJet. “The combination of Southwest and LanzaJet is a powerful combination that has the potential to integrate the SAF value chain and strengthen the U.S. ethanol, aviation and biofuels industries. Our work together will move us closer to aviation’s decarbonization goals by continuing to expand SAF production in the United States while leveraging the potential of the U.S. ethanol industry as a catalyst for the next generation of SAF production.”
The U.S. facility to be developed by LanzaJet will also provide the ability to convert SAFFiRE's cellulosic ethanol into SAF. "We are taking the next step in our sustainability journey to achieve our goal of net zero by 2050," said Bob Jordan, president and CEO of Southwest Airlines. "We are excited to work with LanzaJet as they develop a potentially important technology that could provide Southwest with additional opportunities to source scalable SAF - a critical component to the success of our environmental sustainability goal of replacing 2030% of our jet fuel consumption with SAF by 10."