Gevo Inc announced that it has obtained a conditional commitment for a loan guarantee amounting to USD 1.46 billion (EUR 1.34 billion) from the US Department of Energy (DOE) for its sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) project located in Lake Preston, South Dakota.
The loan facility, provided under the DOE Loan Programs Office (LPO), has a total borrowing capacity of USD 1.63 billion when including capitalized interest during the construction period, according to the company's press release.
The Net-Zero 1 project (NZ1) will be the first corn starch-to-jet fuel facility in the United States, aiming to produce approximately 60 million gallons (227 million liters) of SAF annually. Additionally, the facility is expected to yield around 1.3 billion pounds (589,670 tons) of protein and animal feed products, as well as 30 million pounds of corn oil, all sourced from 100% US-sourced feedstocks.
Construction of NZ1 began in 2022, and Gevo noted that it is the first large-scale alcohol-to-jet (ATJ) project to receive a DOE LPO conditional commitment. The company highlighted that the ATJ plant design is characterized by the lowest cost-per-tonne of carbon abatement among existing SAF production technologies.
“This valuable commitment to help finance NZ1, if finalized, should also attract other capital investments to unlock SAF commercialization given the robust due diligence conducted by the agency,” said Patrick Gruber, CEO of Gevo.
In addition to Gevo's project, the DOE recently approved nearly USD 3 billion in conditional loan guarantees for two SAF initiatives, including an expansion of an existing renewable fuels facility in Great Falls operated by Montana Renewables LLC, a subsidiary of Calumet.
