The Minnesota SAF Hub—a coalition of more than 300 businesses, universities, cities, counties, and philanthropic organizations in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area—noted several milestones in the year since it was established to create the first large-scale sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) value chain in the U.S.
Ahead of the North American SAF Conference this week in St. Paul, the group announced the launch of the first SAF blending facility in the state. Flint Hills Resources is collaborating with Delta Air Lines, which has a major hub at Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport (KMSP), to develop a plant capable of blending up to 30 million gallons of neat SAF a year. Expected to be completed by the end of 2025, it is believed to be the first facility in the central U.S. with blending capability. The fuel will be delivered via existing pipeline to KMSP.
Last month, the FAA awarded a nearly $17 million grant to convert an existing Gevo ethanol and isobutanol fuel refinery in the state into a fully integrated alcohol-to-jet-fuel facility, which will allow it to use Minnesota-grown feedstocks for the first time.
Lastly, to spur production and drive down the cost of SAF, the Hub has established a “Demand Consortium” that includes companies such as Delta, Bank of America, Deloitte, and Ecolab. The consortium would then purchase millions of gallons of SAF a year, with an anticipated start in late 2025.
The group has established three horizon goalposts with associated milestones. Horizon 1, with a window of 2024 to 2027, entails beginning the flow of SAF to KMSP and starting the production of the renewable fuel in the state. The next phase (2028 to 2035) will see large-scale SAF production in Minnesota, with higher volumes reaching the airport. Looking more than a decade in the future, Horizon 3 calls for real-scale production using multiple pathways, and driving down the carbon intensity score of SAF through the use of currently experimental crops such as winter camelina seed as feedstock.