Australia's Queensland government has granted environmental approval to Australian bioenergy developer Jet Zero for its Townsville-based sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) project, Project Ulysses.
The approval confirms the project's regulatory readiness ahead of Jet Zero's planned final investment decision (FID) in 2026, the company said on 23 December.
Project Ulysses will use the alcohol-to-jet (ATJ) pathway to produce 113mn litres/yr (92,000 t/yr) of SAF and renewable diesel, using Australian-sourced bioethanol. The development will be Australia's first ethanol-to-SAF plant when completed.
The Australian Renewable Energy Agency (Arena) is carrying out a front-end engineering design (Feed) study for the project which will be completed on 1 January 2026. And with environmental approval secured, the project now moves into its next phase of engineering and development, Jet Zero said.
Jet Zero has also partnered with sustainable fuels technology company LanzaJet. The latter will provide its ATJ technology to the ethanol-to-SAF plant. LanzaJet announced the world's first commercial-scale production of jet fuel from ethanol in November.
Other key investors include Australian airline Qantas, European manufacturer Airbus, Australia's Queensland government, the Arena and Japanese refiner Idemitsu.
