How Will the Biofuels Industry Expand?

The ethanol industry is growing and innovating, with new opportunities ahead. Emily Skor, CEO of Growth Energy, says the ethanol industry is looking at sustainable aviation fuel as one of the biggest new opportunities for the bioeconomy.

“Ethanol is the feedstock for sustainable aviation fuel. That's something we weren't talking about three or four years ago. There's an opportunity that's been opened up with some new tax credits we were able to secure, so now we want to leverage that and, okay, there's some new markets on the table for ethanol. Let's just run towards it.”

Sustainable aviation fuel represents a tremendous increase in demand for corn as a feedstock.

“Last year, we produced 16 million gallons of sustainable aviation fuel. The administration’s goal is three billion gallons by 2030. Now, because jet fuel is so energy dense - you need 1.6 gallons of ethanol to make one gallon of sustainable aviation fuel - that's great for demand. So, we've got the potential, there are billions of gallons of potential in the next seven to 10 years out there if we get the policies right, and we can build this out at commercial scale.”

Getting the pieces in place to develop the industry is a work in progress.