California Ethanol & Power, LLC (CE+P) announced a new 160-acre bioenergy campus Sugar Valley Energy in California’s Imperial Valley to produce up to 61m gallons of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) for the airline industry.

The project will have the potential to produce an additional 140 MGY of SAF once the initial development phase is completed.

The Sugar Valley Energy is strategically located to meet SAF needs for seven Southern California airports as well as general aviation and military airports.

Sugar Valley Energy’s SAF will employ alcohol-to-jet (ATJ) technology for commercial production of both SAF and renewable diesel.

The process converts ethanol to Synthetic Paraffinic Kerosene (SPK) and Synthetic Paraffinic Diesel (SPD) and is an approved pathway to produce SAF in accordance with ASTM D7566 Annex A5, which permits blending up to 50% with conventional jet aviation fuel.

“Ultimately, diversifying our product offering to the broadest possible customer base will accelerate our financing process,” said David Rubenstein, CEO, CE+P.

The company said the Sugar Valley Energy is in the final stage of development, and will house ethanol production facility, a bioelectric power island and wastewater treatment facility. 

In addition to producing 61m gallons of SAF, the project will produce approximately 87m gallons of very low-carbon, fuel-grade ethanol, up to, up to 41 megawatts (“MW”) of baseload electricity produced from biomass, and 1,432,000 MMBtu of pipeline quality biomethane, in part for transport.

The company aims to produce sugarcane feedstock for the plant locally, directly controlled by SVE and fully contracted with nearby Imperial Valley farmers. 

SVE said it has already developed a robust long-term feedstock program and envisions growers currently producing alfalfa for animal feed export markets will switch to sugarcane production.