Press Releases

AVAPCO, a U.S. State of Georgia subsidiary of GranBio, selected for $80 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy to make Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF)

The Department of Energy announced that it will award an $80 million grant to AVAPCO, LLC in support of the U.S. Government’s initiative to advance the use of cleaner and more sustainable fuels in aviation as outlined in the new SAF Grand Challenge Roadmap. 

AVAPCO is a subsidary of GranBio, an industrial biotechnology company with more than 300 patents in the field of biofuels, biochemicals and biomaterials and operating facilities in Thomaston, Georgia and Alagoas, Brazil.

In 2016, the company received a $4.7 million grant for a Phase 1 pilot demonstrating the conversion of woody biomass into SAF, Naphta, Biodiesel, and nanocellulose. Phase 1 was successful according to the DOE and now a larger plant capable of producing 1.2 million gallons of SAF annually will be built. After the operation of the Demo Plant, GranBio plans to replicate the technology at commercial scale as a leading producer and licensor of fully integrated biomass to SAF plants.

“It’s going to be many decades before there are electric planes, but in the near term, significant reductions in the carbon footprint of aviation is possible with sustainable aviation fuels,” said Kim Nelson, CTO of the Company.

“This recognition from DOE means that we are on the right path to make NET ZERO SAF out of biomass at large scale soon. We take our position with great responsibility and commitment to meet aviation sector expectations. We also thank our partners and supporters in this journey, saidCEO of GranBio.

GranBio was funded in 2011 and has become a pioneer in second generation ethanol, biochemicals and nanocellulose using a vast range of biomass types, such as forest, cane palm, and corn residues. The company has over 300 issued patents in the bioeconomy field. .

NEW PLANT

The $80 million grant will be part of an expected $230 million investment that will be complemented by GranBIo’s own capital and new investors interested in accelerating time to market of SAF.