Infinium breaks ground on Texas eSAF site

US-based e-fuels producer Infinium announced that it began construction on its second U.S.-based eFuels production site, known as Project Roadrunner, in Reeves County, Texas.

The site is expected to become the world’s largest eFuels production facility when operational, producing 23,000 tonnes per year (7.6m gallons) of sustainable aviation fuel (eSAF) and other eFuel products.

“Infinium’s Project Roadrunner marks a huge achievement for the fuel industry,” said Infinium CEO Robert Schuetzle. “Not only will the project produce commercial eSAF for its customers, it will bring highly skilled jobs and economic growth to the Pecos community and state of Texas. This project demonstrates the ongoing commitment of Infinium, its investors, and partners to help ensure that the United States remains a global leader in energy security, resilience and innovation.”

The project achieved financial close with investments from Brookfield Asset Management and Breakthrough Energy Catalyst. The company already has structured commercial agreements including feedstock, vendor and offtake contracts.

The facility will convert waste CO2 and renewable energy to produce SAF, leveraging new renewable power assets purpose-built for the project.

The company said that the fuel produced at the site will be sold domestically in the U.S. and exported to international markets. Earlier, IAG signed SAF offtake agreement with airline group IAG to ship the eSAF to the UK to satisfy compliance requirements under the recently enacted UK SAF Mandate which requires that at least 10% of all jet fuel in flights taking off from the UK is sourced from sustainable feedstocks by 2030.

The facility is expected to reach commercial operations in 2027.

Roadrunner has secured 150MW of new wind generation capacity from a subsidiary of NextEra Energy Resources through a long-term power purchase agreement.