LanzaJet, a sustainable fuels company, revealed that it had received an investment from Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG) to accelerate the deployment of its “proprietary ethanol to sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) process technology.”
The investment made by MUFG is part of the sustainable fuels producer’s $100 million growth equity funding round. Big companies across the globe are backing the funding initiative.
Companies such as Southwest Airlines, Microsoft, and Groupe ADP have invested in LanzaJet as part of the funding round.
In addition, Nippon Airways (ANA), Breakthrough Energy, British Airways, Groupe ADP, LanzaTech, Microsoft’s Climate Innovation Fund, Shell and others are part of Lanzajet’s portfolio of investors and funders.
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Jimmy Samartzis, Chief Executive Officer of LanzaJet, said, “We continue to build a leading team of investors along the SAF value chain who believe in LanzaJet’s ability to decarbonize aviation, which will both address climate change and enable the global economy”.
He added, “The investment from MUFG further enables LanzaJet’s efforts to scale SAF production, with one of the world’s leading financial groups enabling the development of infrastructure globally.”
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With an increasing demand for SAF, LanzaJet aims to be at the forefront of the expansion by commercialising its innovative ethanol-to-SAF technology and opening its fully bankrolled Freedom Pines Fuels biorefinery.
According to the press release, the refinery will be the world’s first commercial-scale ethanol-to-SAF plant.
Planned to be established in the US, the plant will produce SAF and renewable diesel from “low-carbon and sustainable ethanol and achieve International Sustainability and Carbon Certification (ISCC)”, the release mentions.