FedEx has joined Southwest Airlines to buy out Red Rock’s entire eight-year jet fuel inventory — key milestone for project construction.
Red Rock takes waste biomass from forests and sawmills, and using a proprietary process, transforms it into domestically produced jet, diesel and naphtha fuels.
In Colorado, Red Rock Biofuels will produce approximately three million gallons of low-carbon, renewable jet fuel per year from 2017 through 2024 for FedEx Express, a subsidiary of FedEx Corp.
FedEx joins Southwest Airlines in purchasing Red Rock’s total available volume of jet fuel from its first commercial plant, which is scheduled to break ground this fall in Lakeview, Ore. and will convert approximately 140,000 dry tonnes of woody biomass into 15 million gallons per year of renewable jet, diesel and naphtha fuels.
The plant is expected to produce 40% jet fuel, 40% diesel, and 20% naphtha, or 6 million gallons, 6 million and 3 million respectively.
Red Rock’s first refinery is funded in part by a $70 million Title III DPA grant from the US Departments of Agriculture, Energy and Navy, and the plant is expected to produce diesel to meet military market needs. In addition to reducing lifecycle carbon emissions, Red Rock’s production process will also reduce the risk of devastating forest fires in the western United States by decreasing the amount of waste woody biomass in surrounding forests.
Red Rock CEO Terry Kulesa said: “We’ve been working on this for almost three years. The partners are, essentially, splitting the jet fuel production between them. In FedEx’s case, they asked for the EU carbon credits from us, and my first reaction was “what EU carbon credits?” They’re thinking long-term and about the possibility of carbon regulation of aviation in the EU, and they knew that they couldn’t just flip a switch and “go low-carbon” if the fuels were suddenly required.
“We are already working on plants #2 and #3. In some ways, no one cares about a company with one project only, they want to see a platform of projects if they are going to work with you on off-take, or debt. We know we can get the off-takes — obviously, FedEx and Southwest are interested in more. Right now we are focused on closing on this plant and getting it running.”
