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May 18, 2018
On May 16, Fulcrum Bioenergy Inc. announced that it had moved to Phase 2 of project construction in the California-based company’s quest to turn municipal solid waste (MSW) into jet fuel. The Sierra BioFuels Plant, located outside Reno, Nevada, is expected to produce 10 million gallons of renewable jet fuel per year from 175,000 tons of municipal solid waste, beginning in 2020. Already, Fulcrum has buyers for the fuel, with offtake agreements from United Airlines, Cathay Pacific and BP.
According to “well-to-wheels” emission analyses, the process of converting MSW to biofuels reduces greenhouse gas emissions by more than 80 percent. Additionally, it reduces the volume in commercial landfills, extending their lifespan. As airlines and governments look to tamp down the growing emissions from the sector, biofuels, along with further improvements in efficiency will be critical to addressing emissions from the aviation sector.
While MSW to biofuels has long held appeal due to the availability of low-cost and reliable feedstocks in municipal waste, developing trash to jet fuel has proven a difficult task, mostly due to difficulties securing financing, as well as some technological set-backs along the way. Fulcrum BioEnergy has been working on the project for at least 10 years, with EESI first reporting on the company in 2009. Since then, numerous companies have dropped out of the field, but Fulcrum remained.
Fulcrum’s Sierra facility will separate organic matter from MSW and convert it to syngas, which is then cleaned and converted to a renewable jet fuel, using a process very similar to how petroleum is converted to jet fuel.
Fulcrum credits its success to a combination of investors, technology and contracting partners. While early loan guarantees were secured from the Department of Energy, and then later, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the company decided to turn to the private bond market to raise the necessary capital for the project. CEO Jim Macias noted that Fulcrum was able to secure tax-free municipal bonds to fund a portion of the project since the project was “starting to look to the municipal bond market like an infrastructure project. We had secured fixed prices, the output is contracted … the process is guaranteed or highly reliable.”
In addition to providing a reliable source of low-carbon biofuels to the airline industry, Fulcrum is bringing additional jobs and economic development to the Reno area. Nevada Governor Brian Sandoval credits projects like Fulcrum as being an economic driver for the state. The project itself will create 500 construction-related jobs, and 120 permanent jobs at the facility, with indirect job creation, as well. According to Sandoval, the state led the Nation in unemployment just seven years ago, but today “we have the largest data center … the largest manufacturing center… And there’s the third piece, which is clean energy.”
Fulcrum has big plans to expand its technology in the United States, with plans for eight MSW-to-biofuels facilities by 2022, producing a combined 300 million gallons of jet fuel annually. Project planning and site selection is already underway for several other projects adjacent to large U.S. metro areas that will also easily serve partners in the airline industry. In a recent interview, Macias stated that Fulcrum is looking towards a Chicago-area location as well as a California refinery. The next refineries will be up to six times larger than the Reno facility since the volumes of fuel needed by the airline industry are immense.
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