Biofuel producer XCF Global expects to reach full capacity at a Nevada sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) plant in the next few months before moving to open new facilities later this decade.
The company's 38mn USG/yr Reno refinery began producing renewable fuels in February this year and will "in about 12 weeks time" reach full capacity, XCF Global chief executive Mihir Dange told Argus.
More than 80pc of that output should ultimately be SAF and the rest renewable naphtha, he said, though XCF noted too in a regulatory filing earlier this month that it was "temporarily" producing renewable diesel as the plant starts up.
XCF, if it achieves its target of full production capacity in the third quarter, plans small-scale SAF plants elsewhere. The company is planning a 40mn USG/yr SAF plant on adjacent land in Reno that it wants to launch in 2027, and it plans to convert idled biodiesel plants in North Carolina and Florida into similarly sized SAF producers by the end of 2028.
Those latter facilities could meet demand from east coast fuel markets further away from existing biorefineries, Dange said. Most SAF producers are located along the Gulf and west coasts.
The expansion plans — coupled with XCF becoming a publicly traded stock this week after merging with a special purpose acquisition company — come despite problems for other biorefineries. Some plants have idled given uncertainty about the future of a clean fuel tax credit, long-delayed biofuel blend mandates and tariffs that have upped feedstock and equipment costs.
At the same time, the Energy Information Administration last forecast that domestic production of "other biofuels" — a category that includes SAF — will grow by 17,000 b/d this year even as biodiesel and renewable diesel output falls. The small market today is supported by increasingly-stringent SAF mandates in the EU and UK, which are pulling in imports, and a new tax credit in the US known as "45Z" that offers heftier subsidies to aviation over road fuels.
"You have this new administration pushing towards petroleum-based products. Seems like margins are compressing a little bit in SAF and SAF-related products. But 45Z is there to provide a stimulus for existing companies and future growth," Dange said.
Dange said XCF has other advantages, including a pretreatment unit that allows it to use a diverse range of feedstocks and a supply and offtake deal with fellow biofuel producer Phillips 66. He also said the strategy of building small modular plants, which differs from competitors like Diamond Green Diesel and Calumet that have pursued far-larger facilities, involves less risk in the current market.
"You're seeing less capital inflowing right now for infrastructure projects that are related to SAF," he said.
Dange said that XCF is aiming to invest not just in production but "upstream and downstream" processes that support the SAF market — including pretreatment facilities and advanced waste feedstocks.
