SAFFiRE Renewables CEO Tom Nealon previews the company’s upcoming partnership with Conestoga Energy for a pilot plant set to help create sustainable aviation fuel during the most recent Liberal City Commission meeting Tuesday evening. L&T photo/Elly Grimm
ELLY GRIMM
• Leader & Times
After taking on a special meeting earlier in the afternoon, the Liberal City Commission had a short and easy time for its regular meeting Tuesday evening.
Early in the meeting was Items from Groups, which saw SAFFiRE Renewables CEO Tom Nealon speak.
“To begin, SAFFiRE Renewables is a wholly owned subsidiary of Southwest Airlines and prior to my role at SAFFiRE, I was president of Southwest Airlines, so they’re quite committed to what we’re doing,” Nealon said. “What we’re doing is building a cellulosic ethanol plant in conjunction with Conestoga Energy. There have been many past attempts at cellulosic ethanol that have not worked, but the approach we’re taking is quite different, it’s in conjunction with the Department of Energy and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, Colo., and we are breaking ground on a new facility in Liberal. We’ve been working on this project for several years at this point, so it’s a really big deal for us to finally break ground.”
Nealon then talked about the overall goals for the plant.
“We burn a lot of jet fuel – about 2.5 billion gallons a year, in fact, which leads to a lot of carbon emissions,” Nealon said. “The reason Southwest Airlines has invested in this is we need to create sustainable aviation fuel. There are many different pathways to do that, and our belief is Ethanol to Jet is by far the most advantageous pathway to sustainable aviation fuel. This is not competitive with Gen 1 ethanol, which is being converted to fuel now, but complementary. We come in, and right behind the Gen 1 harvest, we collect the stover, and then we have a plant that is adjacent and connected to the Conestoga Energy plant that creates that Gen 2 ethanol. The way you measure the efficacy of sustainable aviation fuel is through a metric called the Carbon Intensity Score. For a point of reference, Jet A, which is traditional jet fuel, has a Carbon Intensity Score of 89, and traditional ethanol (which is converted to Sustainable Aviation Fuel, or SAFF) has a Carbon Intensity Score of about 25, so there’s a big difference there. We are a big believer in ethanol, and the Gen 2 ethanol we’re producing has a Carbon Intensity Score of -40 to -100, which is really terrific. The reason that’s so important to be that low is because that’s how you qualify for the credits to make the fuel affordable.”
The pilot plant has the chance to make a huge impact when it comes to sustainable aviation fuel, Nealon said.
“By 2050, U.S. aviation will require 35 billion gallons, and I think the largest piece contributing to replacing Jet A with sustainable aviation fuel will be through Ethanol to Jet,” Nealon said. “This Liberal facility is a 10 tons per day pilot, which is rather small, and it’ll be converting 10 to 13 bales per day once everything really gets going. We plan to be up and running by November 2025, and we should be commissioned and operating for about a year to 18 months to prove out the pilot. Then, the intent is to build a demonstration plant, which goes from 10 tons per day to 200 tons per day, which is pretty significant. Fortunately, there’s a lot of corn stover to be harvested, there’s about 500 million metric tons in the U.S., and you can easily take off 25 to 40 percent without damaging the fields, which we have to be really careful about. We have agronomists who will be measuring the soil quality before harvest and also prior to the planting so we can measure how we’re doing. We feel very good about what we’re doing, and we know there’s still a lot of work to come, but we’re up to it.”
Nealon then briefly talked about some of the benefits of the pilot plant before concluding his presentation (AUTHOR’S NOTE: See Sunday’s edition of the L&T for photos and stories from the pilot plant’s groundbreaking).
Up next for the commission was discussion of the Revenue Neutral Rate.
“As has been discussed before, this is really a measure to help buy us an additional six weeks to better vet the numbers for the budget,” City Manager Rusty Varnado said. “I’m glad we have the extra time, and Brad [Beer] and Scarlette [Diseker] dissected some areas we hadn’t dug into as deeply before now, and they found some significant savings. We were able to stabilize spending, and Scarlette was very close on getting our rollover number, which will determine the levy amount, but we fully intend to levy the same amount or less than we did last year. This is strictly a measure to give us that extra six weeks to complete everything and then get your approval.”
“My only question would be, we’re considering levying the same amount, or a smaller amount, of mills or dollars?” Liberal Mayor Jose Lara asked, to which Varnado responded it would be the dollars.
After some more brief discussions, the commission ultimately unanimously voted to adopt Resolution No. 2419 to levy a property tax rate exceeding the Revenue Neutral Rate for the budget year 2025.
Up next, the commission also approved a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for a water agreement with Apex, which allows for the sale of reclaimed water from the City’s wastewater treatment plant to Toro Green Fuels, LLC, a private entity, engaged in renewable energy development.
“WHEREAS, Toro entered into a water purchase agreement with the City of Liberal, a Kansas municipal corporation, dated effective Aug. 27, 2024, for the purchase and acquisition of water and covering certain real property located in the City of Liberal, as more particularly evidenced and described on Exhibit A attached hereto; and WHEREAS, on the 27th day of August 2024, the Liberal City Commission put forth and voted upon this memorandum and duly authorized the City Manager and City Mayor to execute the same and further negotiate and execute the agreement; and WHEREAS, pursuant to the agreement, Toro desires, plans and intends to use the water, together with all the rights, titles and interests appurtenant to such water that are necessary or useful in order to find, protect, produce, sever, save, care for, measure, store, treat or transport water and such that Toro may have full use, management, and enjoyment of the water as toro deems fit, reasonable, and necessary,” the MOU noted. “Now, therefore, Toro hereby files for record this Memorandum, evidencing Toro’s respective rights under the agreement, and to serve as notice of such rights and plans for the current and future use of the water.”
To conclude the meeting’s new business, the commission approved the Liberal CityBus Title VI, as is done annually.