World’s first jet fuel from ethanol produced at new US plant

LanzaJet, a US-based fuel producer, has achieved a global first by producing jet fuel from ethanol at its Freedom Pines Fuels facility in Soperton, Georgia. This commercial-scale production marks a significant breakthrough as the first non-petroleum renewable jet fuel compatible with existing aircraft. The accomplishment is the result of 15 years of research and development, validating LanzaJet’s proprietary Alcohol-to-Jet (ATJ) technology. This technology converts ethanol into Synthetic Paraffinic Kerosene (SPK), a type of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), through a continuous catalytic process involving dehydration, oligomerization, and hydrogenation. The ATJ process can utilize diverse sustainable feedstocks such as agricultural residues, energy crops, municipal solid waste, and captured carbon, offering a scalable alternative to the limited feedstocks used in current SAF production methods like Hydroprocessed Esters and Fatty Acids (HEFA). The Freedom Pines Fuels facility, a First-of-a-Kind integrated plant with