Southwest Airlines invests in SAF pilot project

Southwest Airlines Co. is to invest in SAFFiRE Renewables as part of a Department of Energy (DoE)-backed project to develop and produce scalable, sustainable aviation fuel (SAF).
Funded with a DoE grant matched by Southwest’s investment, SAFFiRE is expected to utilise technology developed by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) to convert corn stover into renewable ethanol that then would be upgraded into SAF.
According to NREL, this could produce significant quantities of cost-competitive SAF that could provide an 84% reduction in carbon intensity compared to conventional jet fuel on a lifecycle basis.
“SAF is critical for decarbonising the aviation sector,” said Bob Jordan, CEO at Southwest®. “This is a unique opportunity to invest in what we believe could be game-changing technology that could facilitate the replacement of up to approximately five percent of our jet fuel with SAF by 2030, with the potential to significantly continue to scale beyond the decade. This first-of-its-kind investment is another step we are taking to address our environmental impact, and it also supports our efforts to partner with organisations and government entities to help our industry reach the goal of carbon neutrality by 2050.”
In 2021, Southwest set a near-term goal to maintain carbon neutrality to 2019 levels while continuing to grow its operations, part of which includes replacing 10 percent of its total jet fuel consumption with SAF by 2030.
“The Department of Energy is committed to turning our ambitious aviation decarbonisation goals into realities through strong partnerships across the airline industry,” said US Deputy Secretary of Energy David Turk. “Moving cutting-edge technology advances in sustainable aviation to production scale will save money, reduce carbon emissions, and reshape the future of the airline travel for the benefit of American consumers.”
“We are extremely excited to be working with Southwest Airlines—they will be a great investor,” said Mark Yancey, CEO of SAFFiRE. “SAFFiRE technology is expected to produce lower carbon SAF compared to conventional jet fuel on a lifecycle basis, which could become carbon negative with process improvements and carbon capture. If we are successful in developing and commercialising this technology, we project the technology can produce 7.5 billion gallons per year of SAF by 2040.”