Southwest Airlines inks 680m gallon SAF purchase deal with USA BioEnergy

Southwest Airlines has signed a 20-year 680m gallon Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) offtake agreement with USA BioEnergy.

The airline plans to begin purchasing SAF from USA BioEnergy’s facility near Bon Wier, Texas from 2028 onwards.

The agreement also includes an opportunity for Southwest Airlines to purchase another 180m gallons of SAF per year from future planned production facilities.

“Our agreement with Southwest Airlines is a perfect fit because it aligns Southwest’s goal of reaching net zero carbon emissions by 2050 and USA BioEnergy’s goal of becoming the leading producer of carbon-negative fuel. USA BioEnergy is excited to work with Southwest on this initial project and, potentially, future sites we may add in our pipeline,” said David Prom, chairman and co-founder of USA BioEnergy.

Based out of Scottsdale, Arizona, USA BioEnergy is working on developing 12 refineries to produce low carbon SAF, renewable diesel, and renewable naphtha from forest thinnings using the Fischer-Tropsch technology and hydrocarbon upgrading.

The refiner plans to capture and sequester over 50m tons of CO2 over the useful life of each advanced biorefinery.

“With our plan to produce significant quantities of SAF, USA BioEnergy looks forward to the opportunity to help Southwest get closer to its goal of net zero carbon emissions by 2050. We plan to work with Southwest for decades as we add new biorefinery locations and scale our SAF volumes,” said Nick Andrews, CEO of BioEnergy.