Fulcrum BioEnergy successfully produces low-carbon fuel from landfill waste

Fulcrum BioEnergy Inc., a waste-to-energy company based in Pleasanton, California, says it has successfully produced a low-carbon synthetic crude oil using landfill waste as a feedstock at its Sierra BioFuels plant in Nevada.

"This accomplishment is a watershed moment for Fulcrum and opens the door for our plans to transform landfill waste around the world into a low-carbon transportation fuel in a way that will have a profound environmental impact," Fulcrum President and CEO Eric Pryor says. "After more than a decade of dedication and perseverance, successfully creating a low-carbon fuel entirely from landfill waste validates the strength of our process and our partners' unwavering belief in and support for our business model. We aim to replicate our success at Sierra with cost-efficient net-zero carbon plants nationally and ultimately around the globe."

According to a news release from Fulcrum, the Biden administration has prioritized the development of lower-carbon transportation methods and the aviation industry has set its sights on net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. Fulcrum says it is committed to supporting these objectives and has entered into strategic partnerships with major airlines and other offtake partners to purchase its renewable fuel.

By producing a synthetic crude oil product, which can be refined into sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), Fulcrum says it has demonstrated its process and is preparing to supply its strategic partners with SAF. The company says it expects it will be net-zero carbon when compared to a lifecycle basis to traditional petroleum-based jet fuel.

"This is a significant accomplishment for Fulcrum and the aviation industry," says Andrew Chang, United Airline's ventures managing director. "We look forward to advancing our collaboration with Fulcrum to increase the supply of sustainable aviation fuel."

Fulcrum says it has spent more than a decade and significant capital developing an innovative process for transforming a true waste product into a valuable low-carbon transportation fuel for the aviation industry. Fulcrum expects to utilize a standardized, scalable and low-cost approach for future projects replicating the successful process at Sierra. The company says the process capitalizes on the intellectual property developed by the company in its engineering and startup operations of this first-of-its-kind plant.

The company is making progress on its planned growth program, which Fulcrum expects will have the capacity to produce approximately 400 million gallons of net-zero carbon transportation fuel annually. The company's development program includes the Centerpoint BioFuels Plant in Gary, Indiana, the Trinity Fuels Plant in the Texas Gulf Coast region and the NorthPoint project in the United Kingdom.