A planned jet biofuel plant in Western Washington recently received a potential $600 million financial boost.
Northwest Advanced Bio-Fuels signed a memorandum of understanding on March 23 with New York City-based Stonepeak Infrastructure Partners for $600 million to finance initial construction of a proposed $1.5 billion biofuels plant in Grays Harbor County. Stonepeak has equity investments in roughly $31 billion worth of infrastructure projects, including green and traditional energy facilities.
The Grays Harbor County plant is preparing for an engineering study expected to take four to five months. That study will begin when the company raises $40 million to tackle it, NWABF President David Smoot told NetZero Insider. “We’re extremely excited,” he said.
Smoot declined to disclose exactly where the plant would be built, citing confidentiality agreements. He said the land is owned by the Port of Grays Harbor. The entire $1.5 billion for the project has been lined up, he added.
NWABF expects its plant to produce at least 60 million gallons of biofuel a year before considering expansion. The process would rely on using 3,000 dry tons of wood chips and forest slash a day. The plan is to mix the biofuel with petroleum-based fuel to produce a 90% biofuel blend. The Northwest has the potential to produce 7 million dry tons of wood chips annually, mostly in Western Washington and Oregon, according to a 2019 report issued by Washington State University and the Port of Seattle, the latter of which owns and operates SeaTac Airport.
About 8% of Washington’s carbon emissions comes from aviation fuel, the Port of Seattle said in a press release, citing state figures.
Fuel costs will be a big factor in the future ability of biofuels to compete economically with petroleum-based fuels. The 2019 report estimated that biofuels to be used for airlines would cost between $3.70 to $10.30/gallon. Meanwhile, jet fuel prices this month have so far fluctuated between $1.50 and $1.70/gallon, according to the Airlines for America fuel-cost tracking website.
“Price parity between petroleum jet fuel and (sustainable aviation fuels) from Northwest feedstocks will require financial support and will be sold to locations with the best incentives,” the WSU-Port of Seattle report said.
The report said: “Financial incentives will be necessary to bring sustainable aviation fuel to price parity with petroleum jet fuels. These incentives will likely be a combination of policies such as low-carbon fuel standards (LCFS), the federal Renewable Fuel Standard renewable identification numbers (RINs), blender tax credits and green bonds to help incentivize business investments.”
Delta Airlines has invested $2 million in feasibility studies for NWABF’s Washington project. The airline has a goal of reducing its carbon emissions by 50% by 2050. Smoot said the plant has a customer lined up but declined to say who it is, citing confidentiality.
Chris Whitworth, NWABF’s general manager for the Grays Harbor project, said the company has forest slash suppliers, but also cited confidentiality agreements in declining to say who they are. The WSU-Port of Seattle report said wood chips and forest slash from the Pacific Northwest has the potential to create 80 million to 130 million gallons of jet biofuels a year. When municipal solid wastes and oilseeds are added to wood chips as biofuel sources, the Northwest has to the potential to produce 220 million to 290 million gallons of biofuels a year.
Another jet biofuels plant that uses wood chips as a feedstock is in the works in the Pacific Northwest.
Red Rock Biofuels is building a facility for $320 million in Lakeview, Oregon. The WSU-Port of Seattle report said it will process 136,000 tons of forest slash to produce 15.1 million gallons per year of biofuels. The fuel from that facility is expected to be used by FedEx and Southwest Airlines planes flying out of Oakland International Airport in California, the report said.