Circularity Fuels completes first dairy biogas-to-SAF conversion
In California, Circularity Fuels announced it has completed the world’s first end-to-end conversion of raw agricultural biogas into sustainable aviation fuel (SAF). Over a six-month pilot run on biogas drawn straight from a California dairy farm’s manure digester, Circularity produced drop-in jet fuel meeting ASTM D7566 Annex A1 specifications. The pilot puts commercial SAF within reach at <$100,000 per barrel-per-day of installed capacity at commercial scale, about one-fifth the capital cost of SAF plants currently under construction in Europe. The reduction in plant cost will make Circularity’s biogas-derived SAF cost-competitive with fossil jet fuel.
The pilot host, a dairy of more than 5,000 head near Madera, California, currently vents nearly all of its biogas to the atmosphere despite sitting in the heart of the country’s largest dairy region.
Over thousands of operating hours, Circularity’s two-reactor system ran on raw biogas (about 65% methane and 35% CO₂) drawn straight from the dairy’s digester and produced finished jet fuel. The stack pairs the electrified Ouro bi-reforming reactor with the compact Aion Fischer-Tropsch synthesis reactor. Both are modular, low-cost, skid-mounted reactors, so the system is sized for the small, distributed scales at which biogas is actually produced.
Category: Fuels
