Location, Location, Location – A Vital Component to Making SAF Accessible

By Dave Rubenstein, President and CEO of California Ethanol + Power
Special to The Digest

Some 20+ years ago, as California announced plans to reduce transportation emissions through carbon reduction mandates and diversification of its energy portfolio, an inspired group of Imperial Valley farmers came up with an idea.

Amid the 2008 recession, they saw the state was importing virtually all its ethanol by rail from corn ethanol producers in the Midwest or from Brazilian sugarcane ethanol facilities by ocean carrier. If they could establish a low-carbon ethanol production facility to serve Southern California and supplied by locally grown feedstock, they would have a stable and profitable crop that would contribute to the region’s decarbonization goals.

Fast forward to today, and that idea is on the verge of reality in the form of Sugar Valley Energy, a shovel-ready 160-acre bioenergy campus surrounded by 500,000 acres of fertile farmland with robust senior water rights. And local farmers, many of whom currently are growing and exporting hay or feed grasses to Asia and the middle east, stand to earn better and more consistent wages growing the sugarcane to be purposed for ethanol and energy products, including bioelectricity and pipeline-grade biogas.

The Imperial Valley remains an ideal location for biofuels development, as the state now proceeds with updating its LCFS rules and is investing in a variety of strategies to diversify from traditional fossil fuels. At the same time, the airline industry has stepped up in a big way to reduce its worldwide emissions.

Thirty-eight of the world’s top airlines have committed to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050 or earlier by using Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF).  And 30 of these companies have set some form of SAF adoption target, such as 10% of their overall fuel consumption by 2030. EPA’s data show that approximate 5 million gallons of SAF were consumed in 2021 and over 14 million gallons through November of 2022. The Federal Aviation Administration expects the demand for SAF will reach 3 billion gallons per year by 2030. Airlines have signed agreements with existing and future SAF producers to utilize hundreds of millions of gallons of these fuels.

This represents a pivotal shift in the aviation industry toward environmentally responsible practices. Fueled by a global commitment to reduce carbon emissions, this trend highlights the increasing importance of sustainable options to meet the demands of air travel while mitigating environmental impact.

Sugar Valley Energy can easily accommodate onsite production of up to 61 million gallons annually of SAF. That means a large source of ultra-low-carbon fuel in an ideal location within a two- to four-hour truck trip from the largest aviation market in the country, with seven international airports, not to mention the dozens of other airfields used for freight, military, and private aviation.

The United States is the largest producer of biofuels in the world, which contributes to our domestic economy, creates jobs, and reduces GHG emissions.  While a multitude of projects to bring new capacity online are planned for the next five years, current SAF supply remains scarce and highly concentrated among a few producers.

Sugar Valley Energy is well ahead of the curve, having received full environmental certification, land use approvals, and even commitments from area growers to begin production of sugarcane feedstock. The process to bring the project to this point involved years of environmental studies, permitting and zoning efforts, as well as detailed engineering and technical consultation.

Working with recognized investment finance leaders such as TerraNova Capital and Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) Capital Markets, Sugar Valley Energy’s economic viability is bolstered by the demand projections for SAF and overall growth outlook for biofuels in the United States.

U.S. forecasts demand for SAF will reach anywhere between 7 billion gallons (5% of global jet fuel demand) or 10.6 billion gallons (7.5% of global use) by 2030, with the latter figure bolstered by the potential enactment of policy measures. BCC Research projects the overall biofuels market to grow from $125.9 billion in 2023 and to an estimated $143.8 billion in 2028, representing a compound annual growth rate of 2.7% from 2023 to 2028.

Growing, sourcing, and producing biofuels such as SAF from renewable resources can create new economic opportunities in farming communities, improve the environment, and in the case of SAF, can even boost aircraft performance. Expanding domestic SAF production can help sustain the benefits of our biofuel industry and forge new economic benefits, creating and securing employment opportunities across the country. These include jobs in feedstock production in farming communities; construction for building cutting-edge biorefineries; manufacturing for operating SAF biorefineries and infrastructure; aviation jobs, and more.

By growing biomass crops such as sugarcane, American farmers can earn more money during off seasons by providing feedstocks to this new market, while also securing benefits for their farms like reducing nutrient losses and improving soil quality.

For Sugar Valley Energy, it comes back to the three most important factors of real estate: location, location, location. We are excited to be developing in a business-friendly environment where farmers, state and local governments and other leaders recognized long ago a need to diversify the regional economy. And we believe that Sugar Valley Energy’s promise not only means a more sustainable future for the industries we will supply, but also a more prosperous future for the Imperial Valley.

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David Rubenstein is President and Chief Executive Officer of California Ethanol + Power, a development company that intends to develop, construct, operate and own numerous facilities that will convert locally grown sugarcane into Essential EthanolTM sustainable, renewable and extremely low carbon transportation and aviation fuel.