Decarbonization is a central pillar of the Biden administration’s energy policy ambitions and the federal government is using a multi-pronged approach to drive private investment within the biofuels sector. This panel features an in-depth look at both the Sustainable Aviation Fuels credit and the Clean Fuel Production Credit or 45z tax credit as a means of boosting project economics. Additionally, the Department of Energy’s Loan Programs Office will walk attendees through the financing options available for low-carbon, renewable fuel production projects and the requirements for a project to qualify.

• Kenneth Hill, Senior Consultant, DOE, Loan Programs Office
  Financing SAF, Renewable Diesel, RNG, CCS, Chemicals, and Protein Projects with DOE’s Loan Programs Office
• Tony Miller, Director, Weaver & Tidwell, LLP
  Ethanol and SAF - Credit Qualification: Part 1: Lifecycle Analysis and Environmental Requirements
• Leanne Sobel, Director, Weaver & Tidwell, LLP
  Ethanol and SAF - Credit Qualification: Part 2: Tax Qualification, Registration, and Multipliers
• Pawan Mehra, Senior Economic Advisor, cCarbon
  The North American SAF Market Incentive Landscape at a State and Federal Level

Each of these four presentations offer very different go-forward pathways as a reaction to the opportunity presented by SAF production. These presentations will provide attendees with a compelling vision of increased opportunity for fuel producers via their production, their CO2 streams, or in the case of the panel’s final presentation, their fossil-fuel based refining assets. Producer’s weighing their own posture towards SAF production and how best to participate will appreciate this panel’s variety in approach and complexity.

• Shrikant Rathi, Executive Director, PRAJ Industries Limited
  Enhancing Sustainable Aviation Fuel Production: Innovative Decarbonization Strategies for Existing Ethanol Plants
• Youssef Tazi, CO2 Business Development Manager, Twelve
  CO2 To SAF - How Ethanol Plants Can Play A Crucial Role In Carbon Transformation
• Scott Vincent, Director of Logistics, Strobel Energy Logistics
  Biofuel Logistics Considerations
• Johnny Smatana, Business Development Manager, Integrated Global Services
  Case Study: 50% Savings in Renewables Conversion achieved at a plant in Eastern Canada

Global demand for renewable diesel and SAF volumes are on a growth trajectory expected to last for decades. To meet demand, producers will have to expand their menu of feedstocks that their process can utilize. This panel looks closely at the pretreatment solutions currently available and under rapid development that allow producers to source a broader array of lipid streams and cost-effectively convert it into renewable diesel and SAF. Each approach places a high priority on preserving process catalysts from impurities like phosphorous and metals while also keeping a close eye on minimizing overall operating costs.

• Patrick Moss, VP of Engineering, Frazier, Barnes & Associates, LLC
  Feedstock Pre-treatment – Retrofitting or Adding Pre-treatment to Your Facility
• Lou Lessard, Senior Scientist, Novonesis
  Improved Enzymatic Technology for Pretreatment of Renewable Diesel/SAF Feedstocks
• Matthew Clingerman, Head of Licensing Technology Development, Sulzer Chemtech
  Triglyceride Thermal Cracking for Maximum Hydrotreater Performance
• Gregor Schaub, Associate Division Director Biodiesel, BDI-BioEnergy International GmbH
  What Fits My Process: Future Areas of Application for Waste Oil-Based Feedstock and The Necessity Of Selecting The Suitable Technology.

This panel kicks off with a thought-provoking presentation that calculates the potential output of SAF based on available feedstocks while also offering some guidance on the economic impact of building and operating production sites. Then, the panel will turn its attention toward project development offering expert advice on regulatory compliance, planning for monitoring SAF production and building pro-forma for a SAF project that will attract private investment in a market brim full of projects boasting a clear line of sight on reaching a financial close and an eventual groundbreaking.

• David Miller, Consulting Chief Economist, Decision Innovation Solutions
  Potential for HEFA-SAF and the Economic Impacts
• Julie Valentine, Director, Global Refining and Sustainability Measurement Solutions, Emerson
  Lessons Learned for Monitoring and Control of SAF Production
• John Oyen, Director of Business Development, ABB, Inc.
  The 5 C's Of Project Development, Or Everything, Everywhere All At Once
• Pawan Mehra, Senior Economic Advisor, cCarbon
  Understanding Voluntary and Compliance Demand Levers for the SAF Market Across North America and the EU

As if to underscore the need to make every available ounce of lipid-bearing feedstock viable for conversion into SAF volumes, the discussion about available pretreatment options could not be contained to one panel. This discussion picks up where the preceding panel left, highlighting pretreatment approaches that can effectively protect catalysts and minimize waste. The policies and support mechanisms for SAF production necessitate the maximization of available waste lipid streams and the pretreatment innovations highlighted during this discussion will be a vital component of commercializing the production of meaningful SAF volumes.

• Scott Kohl, Chief Technology Officer, Visionary Fiber Technologies
  Immobilized Enzyme Vegetable Oil Pretreatment System Without the Use of Solid Absorbents
• Kyle Wangler, Renewable Diesel Key Account Manager, W.R. Grace & Co.
  Renewable Feedstock Pretreatment with TRISYL® Silica Adsorbents
• Bryan Yeh, Vice President of Engineering & US Operations, Canary Renewables Corp.
  Technology Options for Pretreating Feedstock For Renewable Diesel And Sustainable Aviation Fuel
• Fahmi Kresmagus, Senior Business Development Manager, Clariant Corporation BU Adsorbents
  Pre-treatment: Safeguarding the Downstream Process in Biofuel Production

That meaningful SAF volumes will have to be produced to align with the goals of the federal government, foreign governments and airlines around the world is well understood. The question now is which production technology will find commercial traction in the marketplace first. This panel features presentations from that approach SAF production from a number of angles. The panel begins looking at technologies that are capable of converting waste grease streams in a distributed production approach, before giving time to the alcohol-to-jet technologies hoping to unlock SAF market share for biofuel producers in the corn-belt.

• Enzo De Biase, Business Development Manager, NextChem Tech., NEXTCHEM
  Nextchem Tech SAF Technology
• Mark Mauss, President, Lutros, LLC
  Novel DCO feedstock pretreatment with a counter-current, reactive-extraction process for sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) and renewable diesel (RD) production
• Stephen Sims, Vice President of Business Development, Universal Fuel Technologies
  Flexiform Ethanol To Produce SAF At 1/2 The Cost Of Alternatives
• Mark Yancey, Senior Technology Advisor, SAFFiRE Renewables, LLC
  Update on Project SAFFiRE

• David Winsness, President, Comstock Fuels
• Brian Werner, Executive Director, Minnesota Bio-Fuels Association
• Julia Silvis, Managing Director of Research and Intelligence, GREATER MSP
• Nick Jordan, Professor of Agronomy & Plant Genetics, University of Minnesota

The parallels between biodiesel and SAF production’s reliance on catalysts and the ethanol industry’s reliance on yeasts is useful in understanding the enormous efforts biodiesel producers make to purge contaminants from their process. A production facility lacking a discipline in maintaining optimal conditions for their catalysts is doomed to disappointing yield and bloated operating costs. This panel features presentations that urge a comprehensive analysis of the entire production process to root out production inhibitors and the chemistries available for deployment to keep catalysts happy and operating at peak capacity.

• Thomas Wolak, Global Business Manager, The Lubrizol Corporation
  Catalyst Sulfiding for Renewable Diesel Production: A Focus on SulfrZol®54 and Amine Compatibility for Enhanced Efficiency and Environmental Safety
• Hari Nemmara, Director, R&D, Filtration Technology Corporation
  Optimizing Contaminant Filtration in Renewable Fuel Feedstocks

To meet ambitious national and global SAF production and utilization goals this nascent industry is going to need to scale, quickly. It is no surprise then that existing biofuel assets, with experienced production teams, strong balance sheets and in-place offtake infrastructure continue to attract interest from technology developers ready to convert a portion of their production to SAF outputs. This panel looks specifically at the interconnection of the established ethanol production matrix and the SAF opportunity. Included in the discussion are some solutions to drive the carbon-intensity of ethanol even lower assuring these assets satisfy the regulatory requirements of the introduced marketplace incentives here and abroad.

• Max Lander, Director of Project Origination, Rondo Energy, Inc.
  How Heat Batteries Make Ethanol America's Premier Zero-CI SAF Feedstock
• Afshin Raei, Process Engineer, POWER Engineers, Inc.
  Alcohol to Jet Fuel
• Brendan Ihde, Director, Business Development – Chemicals & Feedstocks, Virent Inc.
  Ethanol to Aromatics (E2A) – SAF Product Diversification