Aviation fuel and services provider Avfuel is holding a sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) demonstration at Wyoming’s Jackson Hole Airport (JAC) on Tuesday and Wednesday. During the event, the company says it will supply 7,300 gallons of SAF to the Jackson Hole Aviation FBO for use by “operators flying in and out of the airfield during the demonstration days.” The demonstration is being conducted alongside the ribbon-cutting ceremony for the airport’s new underground stormwater detention and filtration system.
“We’re committed to raising awareness on the viability of sustainable aviation fuel,” said Avfuel manager of alternative fuels Keith Sawyer. “Events like these show that the product exists, it is safe, it is simply jet fuel and it provides a great benefit to our environment. By raising awareness, we’re hoping to garner commitments from more operators to use SAF and present those commitments to producers, in essence saying: ‘Here are our customers. The demand is there. We simply need the supply.’”
According to Avfuel, the SAF, which is produced from corn starch, is blended with petroleum-based jet fuel and quality-tested to make sure it meets ASTM D1655 standards. The company sources concentrated SAF from Colorado-based renewable chemicals and advanced biofuels company Gevo.
Feckless virtue signaling.
We’ll now be able to burn lots of fuel and not worrying about running out.
This is a “benefit to our environment”?
You lost me…
Gevo’s major product is isobutanol fermented from starches. To make an acceptable jet fuel additive they’d need to go through several oil-refining-like chemical manipulations.
I think their original business plan was to capitalize on the availability of idled ethanol plants to produce isobutanol instead, as an alternative oxygenate for mogas. It is difficult to see how this will be cost competitive with classic path to jet fuel – refining of petroleum distillate. The environmental benefit may be modest when the agricultural and chemical processing impacts are factored in.
Ironically, less expensive isobutanol might be an attractive additive to ASTM unleaded avgas in view of its RVP and water rejection properties.