Southwest Airlines has launched Southwest Airlines Renewable Ventures (SARV), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Southwest Airlines®, dedicated to creating more opportunities for Southwest to obtain scalable sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), a critical component in the success of the carrier’s goal to replace 10% of its total jet fuel consumption with SAF by 2030. The carrier has also announced a US$30 million investment in LanzaJet, a SAF technology provider and producer with a patented ethanol-to-SAF technology and the world’s first ethanol-to-SAF commercial plant, as part of the SARV investment portfolio.
“Our launch of SARV and our investment in LanzaJet demonstrate that we are not sitting on the side-lines. Rather, we’re in the game by taking pro-active, disciplined steps toward securing affordable SAF for Southwest, as we continue to march toward our goal of net-zero by 2050,” said Bob Jordan, President & CEO of Southwest Airlines. “We look forward to working with companies and organisations developing important technology, like LanzaJet, which could help us meet our SAF goals.”
Southwest will continue to work with SAF producers to enter into SAF off-take agreements, while SARV will focus on managing Southwest’s SAF-related investments, including the carrier’s previously announced equity investment in SAFFiRE Renewables (SAFFiRE). SAFFiRE has been working with the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and has a license agreement and certain exclusivity rights to this technology for the production of cellulosic ethanol. This technology is an important component in converting corn stover, a widely available agricultural residue feedstock in the U.S., to cellulosic ethanol that can then be converted to SAF using LanzaJet’s technology.
Additionally, as part of its agreement with Southwest, LanzaJet intends to build an ethanol-to-SAF facility to produce SAF primarily for Southwest. The planned facility includes capabilities to convert SAFFiRE’s cellulosic ethanol into SAF, which can produce greater quantities of SAF from SAFFiRE ethanol over time.
