Renewable fuels offer a practical solution for decarbonizing modes of transport for which electricity and hydrogen technologies are not well suited, such as aviation, trucking and shipping. Suncor began producing renewable fuel in the mid-2000s and currently operates Canada’s largest ethanol plant, which uses the starches from corn-based feedstock. The remaining material is used to make cattle feed and corn oil. In addition, over the past decade, Suncor has made strategic investments in advanced-generation technologies to create ethanol and methanol from waste streams such as non-recyclable municipal waste, industrial forestry residue and agricultural waste biomass, most of which reached pilot demonstration levels of development.
Suncor is also a founding investor in LanzaJet which is focused on commercializing an alcohol-to-jet technology to produce sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) and renewable diesel from ethanol. The LanzaJet Freedom Pines Fuels plant will open in Q2 2024 and will be the first ethanol to SAF production facility in the world. The technology can produce fuel from a variety of sustainable feedstocks, such as agricultural waste and municipal solid waste, while reducing greenhouse gas emissions by more than 70 percent and particulate matter by 95 percent. The facility will produce over 45 million litres (10 million gallons) of SAF and renewable diesel annually – enough to fuel more than 1,300 Boeing 737-800 jets per year.
