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Airbus partners with DG Fuels to foster sustainable aviation fuel production in United States

Airbus reached an agreement to form a strategic partnership with DG Fuels LLC, a producer of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF).

“Sustainable aviation fuels play a crucial role in enabling aviation’s decarbonisation roadmap. We are committed to supporting all efforts that contribute to making them available at scale around the globe,” said Airbus CEO Guillaume Faury. “The partnership with DG Fuels supports the emergence of a new technological pathway allowing for the production of SAFs from a broader range of waste and residue sources, first in the U.S with a potential for large-scale production worldwide.”

DGF’s fuel production system is based entirely on cellulosic waste products, such as wood waste from the logging industry, and renewable energy sources, such as wind and solar power. DGF is building a low-CO2 life cycle emissions synthetic fuel system based on high carbon conversion technology that is targeting a 97 per cent efficiency. Its technology approach does not require the development of new engines or types of distribution infrastructure.

DGF’s plant aims to have an initial production capacity of 120 million US gallons (454 million litres) of SAF per year on average, which could save approximately 1.5 million tonnes of CO2 emissions annually from 2026.

“The DGF team is excited to have finalized this SAF partnership with Airbus,” said Michael Darcy, Chairman and CEO at DG Fuels, “and we look forward to working together to accelerate the initial SAF facility in Louisiana and the subsequent scale up at various locations in the United States and beyond.”

The partnership with Airbus supports DG Fuels’ goal of launching the equity process and reaching a final investment decision on building DG Fuels’ first SAF plant in the United States. The decision would be expected by early 2024. In this context, Airbus and DGF have agreed for a portion of the production of the first plant to benefit Airbus’ customers.

This project is in line with the U.S. government-sponsored SAF Grand Challenge, which aims to reduce costs, improve sustainability and expand domestic SAF production. This national program aims to produce 3 billion US gallons (11.3 billion litres) of domestic sustainable aviation fuel per year, achieving at least a 50 per cent reduction in lifecycle greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions compared to conventional fuel by 2030 and 100 per cent of projected aviation fuel consumption – or 35 billion US gallons of annual production – by 2050.