Gevo, USDA ink deal to foster SAF production
In California, Gevo announced it has finalized and executed a Notice of Grant and Agreement Award with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) for a Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities grant of up to $30 million for Gevo’s Climate-Smart Farm-to-Flight Program.
The firm explained that this program is aimed at tracking and quantifying the carbon-intensity (CI) impact of climate-smart practices while creating market incentives for low CI corn to help accelerate production of sustainable aviation fuel and low-CI ethanol.
Gevo said that the grant will play a pivotal role in expediting the adoption of climate-smart farming practices and immediate market expansion of field-tracked, low-CI corn destined for SAF production in the area surrounding the company’s previously announced Net-Zero 1 (NZ1) SAF plant, currently under development in Lake Preston, South Dakota.
“Our Farm-to-Flight Program, under this USDA grant, aims to count all the carbon at the field level and reward farmers on a performance basis for delivering low-CI corn, as well as to accelerate the production of SAF to reduce dependency on fossil-based fuel,” said Paul Bloom, Chief Carbon Officer and Chief Innovation Officer at Gevo.
