Dec 5 2024
CRIN and The Canadian Council for Sustainable Aviation Fuels (C-SAF) hosted an insightful discussion on December 5 featuring leading companies at the forefront of the sustainable aviation fuels (SAF) sector.
The online session highlighted initiatives from Azzera, Skytree, SixRing, and BioFlight Fuels to help advance SAF in Canada.
C-SAF Executive Director Geoff Tauvette said C-SAF connects an ecosystem of about 120 stakeholders within the SAF value chain, including airlines, fuel suppliers, technology providers, feedstock providers, and academia. Its main mission is to advance the use and, particularly, the production of SAF in Canada.
BioFlight Fuels CEO and Co-Founder Keith Strachan said the development-stage company based in Barrie, Ontario, is focused on the production of SAF from biogas, mostly from waste sources such as wastewater treatment plants.
The company has partnered with OxEon Energy in Salt Lake City, Utah, to produce SAF from biogas derived from anaerobic digestion at a pilot project scale. It is also talking to Ontario municipalities about partnerships. Its approach is based on “tried and true” technology.
SixRing President Scott Treadwell said SixRing’s solution is a low-cost, highly efficient chemical process to convert biomass to high-value products – specifically, the company produces high-purity cellulose and highly functional bio-crude.
The process and equipment are very simple, Treadwell said.
“It all happens at ambient temperature and pressure in atmospheric stainless-steel tanks,” he noted. “It’s chemistry you can buy at your local Canadian Tire store.”
It makes three families of products: sustainable chemicals, biofuels, and high-value materials.
Azzera CEO and Co-Founder Puja Mahajan said Azzera has built a platform called Azzera Celeste, which connects operators and airlines with SAF producers and carbon credit producers.
“Our goal is to automate that whole process, to get them from emissions into mitigation through the platform,” she said.
The platform includes close to 500 aircraft and more than 30 companies. This past year, Azzera signed a contract with Transport Canada to beta-test the platform with three commercial airlines.
Chief Innovation Officer Anant Jain said through the platform, Azzera has connected with operating software systems that airlines traditionally use to capture flight data. It can then calculate CO2 emissions, assign the right carbon market to flights, and assign types of SAF to airport locations.
Elena Nikonova, Skytree Vice-President of Strategy for North America, said the Dutch company is making strides in the North American market. Skytree produces direct air capture machines.
What sets Skytree apart from its competitors is that it does not develop custom sites but produces machines that are modular and standardized and can be scaled to any volume, and the sorbent inside the system is upgradable.
Skytree already has six deployments. Its first Canadian customer was Deep Sky, which is building a facility in Alberta. It also recently announced a wind-powered DAC hub in Texas.
To learn more about SAF, you can watch the video replay here....
Read the full news release here
