Strategic Biofuels and Sumitomo Corporation of Americas Announce Major Investment Commitment

Louisiana Green Fuels project shifting gears

SAF is a renewably produced fuel specifically created to reduce the considerable carbon emissions of commercial aviation. When the LGF project was first announced, Strategic Biofuels garnered recognition for the extraordinarily low carbon footprint of the planned renewable diesel fuel product. The footprint of SAF that will now be produced is expected to be so low that just one gallon of it blended with three gallons of fossil-derived jet fuel will reduce the dependency on carbon in the future. To achieve this carbon reduction in 2029, the LGF plant will utilize:

• Approximately 1 million tons per year of forestry waste as the feedstock for the biorefinery;
• Green energy from an integrated biomass-fired power plant that will take nearly 1 million tons of sawmill waste annually to produce 86 megawatts of power; and
• Geologic carbon sequestration of 1.36 million metric tons per year of CO2 produced from both of those operations to create this fuel which is equivalent to removing nearly 300,000 passenger cars from the road, making it a product much in demand by the aviation industry.

“Our partnership with Strategic Biofuels is just another example of our commitment to support the energy transition within the Americas,” said Sandro Hasegawa, General Manager, Energy Innovation Initiative Americas at SCOA. “Supporting the LGF project means bringing groundbreaking technology to the Port of Columbia that enables the local economy and sustains the natural environment. We look forward to leading the investment with our partners in Japan and demonstrating what can be accomplished when global players work together.”

This investment commitment from SCOA continues the path from 2023, which was a year of rapid project advancement for LGF. Most recently, Strategic Biofuels announced that the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality had issued an Air Permit for the integrated LGF facility, an industry “first of its kind” in Louisiana and a major step forward for the project. This followed an agreement with SLB, a global technology company, to provide its industry-leading technical services for the company’s planned carbon sequestration complex. Earlier in the year, the EPA deemed the project’s Class VI permit application for carbon sequestration as “administratively complete,” which included extensive geologic data collected from LGF’s 2021 Class V stratigraphic test well.

Furthermore, the EPA announced on December 29, 2023 that it was awarding “primacy” to the State of Louisiana, conveying to the state’s Department of Natural Resources the right to issue Class VI permits for geologic sequestration of carbon dioxide. Louisiana is only the third state to be granted this authority. As has occurred in the only two other states granted primacy, that action is expected to accelerate the schedule for regulatory review and Class VI permit issuance.

Strategic Biofuels impact goes beyond industry with local transformation

Once complete, the LGF plant will create approximately 151 direct jobs onsite with an average annual income of $70,000 per year, excluding benefits; while five to six times as many indirect job opportunities are expected. During peak construction times, an estimated 1,500 jobs will need to be filled to further the plant to operation. As a result, Strategic Biofuels will substantially improve the local quality of life in the nation’s seventh poorest US Congressional District (LA-5) and tenth poorest Parish in Louisiana, which has an average household income of just $41,000 per year. The team is also actively involved with Caldwell Parish School District and has helped support several programs championing career and personal development.