Gevo Inc. announced April 22 that it has come to an agreement with Lufthansa to evaluate Gevo's renewable jet fuel with the goal of approving Gevo's alcohol-to-jet fuel (ATJ) for commercial aviation use.

Lufthansa's testing is being supported through work with the European Commission.

“ATJ, like the Fischer-Tropsch pathway, has the potential to use lignocellulosic waste as feedstock, but promises to do so at less cost than Fischer-Tropsch,” said Lufthansa Group Senior Manager Aviation Biofuels, Alexander Zschocke. Lufthansa is a leader in the marketplace for alternative fuels.

“By using isobutanol as a renewable raw material for producing jet fuel, the resulting jet fuel has the mixtures of molecules typical of petro-based jet fuel making it directly compatible with engines and
infrastructure,” said Patrick Gruber, Gevo's CEO. “Renewable jet embodies the potential of cleaner, greener, and as we scale up, cost-competitive drop-in fuels. We greatly appreciate Lufthansa's and the European Commission's support of this effort. Through initiatives like this, the commercial airlines are seeking to prove out ATJ and move it towards commercialization. ATJ from Gevo's isobutanol is a clean-burning, homegrown, drop-in jet fuel, and we have a potential route to deliver aviation biofuels at scale and at competitive cost."

Gevo's patented ATJ fuel is a drop-in fuel, designed to be fully compliant with aviation fuel specifications and provide equal performance, including fit-for-purpose properties.