Gevo and Lufthansa sign agreement for commercial supply of renewable Alcohol-To-Jet Fuel

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Gevo has been producing Alcohol-To-Jet (ATJ) fuel in its biorefinery at South Hampton Resources’ facility in Silsbee (TX) since 2011. The plant has an input capacity of approximately 5-10 thousand gallons of isobutanol (from Gevo’s fermentation facility in Luverne) per month and produces testing volumes for commercial airlines. Simultaneously, it has been working toward commercializing this ATJ fuel envisaging its potential to be an aviation biofuel alternative at competitive cost. Below, a summary of some of the steps taken in this road toward commercialization that culminates in an important fact announced yesterday.

Figure 1. Gevo’s fermentation facility in Luverne. Gevo’s first commercial hydrocarbons facility is intended to be built there.

After six years of rigorous performance assessments conducted by ASTM International, Gevo received the ASTM certification for its ATJ fuel in Q1 2016. ASTM International included alcohol to jet synthetic paraffinic kerosene (ATJ-SPK) derived from renewable isobutanol in the last revision of ASTM D7566 (Standard Specification for Aviation Turbine Fuel Containing Synthesized Hydrocarbons). Gevo’s ATJ become eligible to be used for up to a 30% blend in conventional jet fuel for commercial flights.

Following the chain of events, Gevo announced that the first two commercial flights using its ATJ fuel took place on 7th June originating in Seattle and flying to San Francisco International Airport and Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, respectively. The two Alaska Airlines flights utilized a 20 percent fuel blend.

And yesterday, Gevo reported that it had entered into a heads of agreement (see press release) with Deutsche Lufthansa AG to supply its ATJ from its first commercial hydrocarbons facility, intended to be built in Luverne (MN).  The terms of the agreement contemplate Lufthansa purchasing up to 8 million gallons per year of ATJ from Gevo or up to 40 million gallons over the 5 year life of the off-take agreement. The heads of agreement establishes a selling price that is expected to allow for an appropriate level of return on the capital required to build-out Gevo’s first commercial scale hydrocarbons facility. The heads of agreement is non-binding and is subject to completion of a binding off-take agreement and other definitive documentation between Gevo and Lufthansa in the next few months.

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