Thematic Deep Dive Reports :

The Alcohol To Jet Conversion Pathway for

Drop-In Biofuels
Alcohol to Jet (AJT) is a process for the conversion of alcohols to an alternative jet fuel blendstock based on catalytic steps
historically utilized by the petroleum refining and petrochemical industry.
This pathway provides a means for producing a sustainable alternative jet fuel (SAFJ) from a wide variety of resources,
offering a near term opportunity for alcohol producers to enter the SAJF market and for the aviation sector to meet growing
SAFJ demand.
 Content

The Alcohol To Jet 1. Process Overview

Conversion Pathway
2. Product Developer
for Drop-In Biofuels
3. Specification for ATJ

4. Techno Economic Analysis

5. Comparation between Alcohol and HEFA/HVO

6. Market Demand Outlook

Process Overview
The core of the ATJ Process is a concept developed to bridge the gap between alcohols that can be easily produced from renewable resources and the high-quality
hydrocarbon fuels necessary for jet turbines. This process is based on three catalytic reactions such as 1. alcohol dehydration, 2.olefin oligomerization, and 3.hydrogenation,
followed by fractionation of the synthetic paraffin product.
Details
Dehydration
• Dilakukan penghilangan dan atau pemisahan air
dengan menggunakan katalis berupa zeolite,
alumina, katalis asam

Oligomeration
• Proses pengabungan monomer alkena dan olefin
rantai pendek untuk membentuk rantai lebih
kompleks, dalam konteks alkohol to jet , alkena yang
diproduksi harus dioligomerasi, biasanya berkisar
antara 8-16 karbon untuk kisaran kerosine.

Hydrogeneration
• Proses untuk mengjenuhkan ikatan rangkap yang
tersisa dari produk olefin setelah selesai
oligomerasi. Hidrogenerasi dapat terjadi diatas
katalis padat

• Untuk memenuhi 1 ton ethanol to jet diperlukan

0,0059 ton/day hidrogen atau 5,9 kg/day hidrogen

• Guerbet alkohol adalah alkohol yang berasal dari

reaksi guerbet, reaksi guerbet sendri adalah suatu
reaksi organik yang mengubah alkohol alifatik utama
menjadi alkohol dimer β-alkylated nya dengan
kehilangan satu ekuivalen air

Product Developer
Comparison of various advanced alcohol-producing technologies explored and currently in
development for use in ATJ upgrading and their resulting hydrocarbon products
Amsterdam
• LanzaTech is the global leader in
gas fermentation technology. The
company provides novel and
economic routes to ethanol, jet fuel
and high-value chemicals from any
biomass resource
• Alcohol Producing Process :
Conventional Sugar Fermentation
and Gas Fermentation
• Alcohol Intermediate : Ethanol
• The first batch of LanzaTech jet
fuel was used on a commercial
flight for the very first time – Virgin
Atlantic’s VS16 flight from Orlando
to London Gatwick, operated by a
Boeing 747 aircraft in October
2018
• San Jose, California, US
This flight follows hot on the heels
of a £410K UK government Future
Fuels for Flight and Freightgrant to
determine the feasibility of building
a 40-50million US gallon jet fuel
plant in Britain.
Source:
FLITE. 2022. https://flite.eu/about/
Bioenergy International, 2021. https://bioenergyinternational.com/flite-consortium-to-build-europes-first-of-its-kind-alcohol-to-jet-production-plant/
Honeywell. 2022.. https://biomassmagazine.com/articles/19417/honeywell-announces-new-ethanol-to-jet-technology
Luverne, MN, US
• Alcohol Producing Process :
Conventional Sugar
Fermentation and Gas
Fermentation
• Alcohol Intermediate: iso-butanol
• Creating the feedstock for our
demonstration scale ATJ
process in Silsbee,Texas.
• Potential builtout overview :
Isobutanol Production 14-16
MGPY and 8 MGYP Jet fuel and
2 MGYP Isooctane
Honeywell UOP
• Honeywell’s new solution
represents critical development
in global drive to meet 2030
sustainable aviation fuel (SAF)
mandates
• Honeywell's ethanol-to-jet fuel
process can reduce greenhouse
gas (GHG) emissions by 80
percent on a total lifecycle
basis, compared to petroleum-
based jet fuel.
Under Construction
Flite (Fuel via Low Carbon Integrated Technology from Ethanol)
Consorsium building Europe’s first Alcohol-to-Jet plant
• The FLITE consortium, led by SkyNRG and with LanzaTech as the technology provider,
will build the first-of-its-kind LanzaJet Alcohol to Jet (AtJ) facility.
• The facility will convert waste-based ethanol to sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) at a scale of
Details more than 30,000 tons/yr.
• The project received €20 million in grant funding from the EU H2020 program
Pacific Northwest National • LanzaJet’s proven ATJ process is a continuous catalytic process that converts ethanol to
Laboratory, WA, US Synthetic Paraffinic Kerosene (SPK) or Synthetic Paraffinic Diesel (SPD) through four
• PNNL is one of the United States primary process steps that have each been proven at commercial scale: Dehydration,
Department of Energy national Oligomerization, Hydrogenation and Fractionation
laboratories, managed by the • The FLITE project kick-off was held on 8 December 2020. and The FLITE AtJ facility will
Department of Energy's Office of
be fully operational in 2024
Science
•
Alcohol Producing Process : Catalytic Partner
(thermochemical) Conversion of
Syngas to Ethanol
• Alcohol Intermediate: Ethanol
Fraunhofer IML, Frankfurt
SkyNRG, Amsterdam Lanzatech, Amsterdam
oversee and distribute
as the project coordinator will be responsible for plant
communications about the
and managing downstream design, construction and
project, energy and
supply chain development operations using the LanzaJet
sustainability strategy
AtJ technology
• Alcohol Producing Process : consultancy
Non-Specific
• Byogy was the original inventor
of the Alcohol To Jet Process
and riginal member of the task
force to develop a global
alternative fuel specification
under ASTM International for The Roundtable on Sustainable E4Tech, London
Biomaterials (RSB), Geneva will conduct the life cycle
ATJ.
support the project through assessment
• Ethanol glut of 1 MBD would
guidance on RSB certification of
produce over 8 BGY of SAF and
the facility.
Renew. Diesel using Byogy;s
ATJ Process
Specification for ATJ
ATJ-SPK (synthetic paraffinic kerosene) is approved by ASTM D7566 as part of Annex A5. Currently, only ATJ-SPK produced from an ethanol or isobutanol intermediate
is allowed up to a 50% maximum blend. ATJ-SPK derived from other alcohols or mixed alcohols are not currently allowed, but ASTM states that they do intend to expand
the standard to include additional alcohols once sufficient test data is available

ASTM D7566 Annex 5 Standard Specification for Aviation Turbine Fuel Containing Synthesized
Hydrocarbons A5. Alcohol-to-jet Synthetic Paraffinic Kerosene (ATJ-SPK)
l

Source:
ASTM D7566. Standard Specification for Aviation Turbine Fuel Containing Synthesized Hydrocarbons A5. Alcohol-to-jet Synthetic Paraffinic Kerosene (ATJ-SPK)
Michaga, Mara Fernanda Rojas et al. 2021. Techno-Economic and life cycle assesstment reviewof sustainable aviation fuel produced via biomass gasification. Research Gate
Techno Economic Analysis
Economic results from the Core ATJ Process are given in below. conversion cost is calculated as the minimum fuel selling price (MFSP) under the assumption that
the costs of alcohol production are factored elsewhere (feedstock costs are assumed to be zero for comparative purposes in this analysis). The purpose of this
approach is to isolated the feedstock cost, and provide a comparison of the core ATJ based on two different molecules: ethanol and isobutanol

ATJ Ethanol $/Ton = 146$ + 661,53$/ton (Conversion cost) = 807,53$/ton

Comparation Between Alcohol to Jet and HEFA
Comparison SAF pathway between Alcohol-to-Jet and HEFA presents specific opportunities and techno-economical analysis depending on feedstock and technology maturity

Alcohol HEFA

• Opportunity description : Potential in the mid-term , however significant techno-economical uncertainty
• Technology Maturity : Commercial Pilot
• Feedstock : Agricultural and forestry residues, municipal solid waste, purposely grown cellulosic
energy crops, High availability of cheap feedstock, but fragmented collection
• % LCA GHG reduction vs fossil jet : 85%-94%
• CAPEX values for fuel production (230 million liters/year) : €355 million from sugars and starches,
€548 from cellulosic (2018)
• Yield (tonnes total fuel production/tonne feedstock) : 0,95 (ethanol-to-jet), 0,26 (cellulosic), 0,47
(sugar-to-ethanol), 0,35 (corn-to-ethanol)
• Opportunity description : Safe, proven, and scalable technology
• Technology Maturity : Mature
• Feedstock : Waste and residue lipids, purposely grown oil energy plants, Transportable and with existing
supply chains, Potential to cover 5%-10% of total, jet fuel demand
• % LCA GHG reduction vs fossil jet : 73%–84%
• CAPEX values for fuel production (230 million liters/year) : €137 million (2018)
• Yield (tonnes total fuel production/tonne feedstock) : 0,90

Source:
World Economic Forum - Clean Skies for Tomorrow Sustainable Aviation Fuels as a Pathway to Net-Zero Aviation Insight Report 2020
Pavlenko et al. 2019. The cost of supporting alternative jet fuels in the European Union. ICCT
Market Demand Outlook
Demand will need to rise sharply to change the calculus of stakeholders throughout the value chain and overcome the challenges of creating a global SAF
ecosystem and reaching 2030 decarbonization targets.

Source:
World Economic Forum - Clean Skies for Tomorrow Sustainable Aviation Fuels as a Pathway to Net-Zero Aviation Insight Report 2020
SkyRNG.2021.SAF Market Outlook. SkyRNG’S Perspective on the ReFuelEU Aviation Initiative Proposal
Green Car Congress. 2021. https://www.greencarcongress.com/2020/08/20200821-saf.html
 In collaboration with
Accenture

Thank you

WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM