Strategic Biofuels, Sumitomo enter joint-development agreement for Louisiana Green Fuels project

Strategic Biofuels and Sumitomo Corporation of Americas, a subsidiary of Sumitomo Corp., a leading Fortune 500 global trading and business investment company dedicated to sustainability, announced Feb. 7 that they have entered into a joint-development agreement for the Louisiana Green Fuels project at the Port of Columbia in Caldwell Parish, Louisiana. 

Sumitomo will take an anchor position and lead the formation of a Japanese-based investment consortium aimed at funding the majority of development capital needed to carry the project to financial investment decision (FID) and commencement of construction in early 2025.

As part of the agreement, Sumitomo will also acquire rights at FID to participate for a portion of the full project equity requirement.

In a decisive strategic shift related to the investment, Strategic Biofuels also unveiled plans to change its primary renewable fuel product to sustainable aviation fuel (SAF).

Sumitomo intends to provide a 20-year offtake for the approximately 640 million gallons of renewable fuels produced as well as all state and federal renewable fuel credits.

“Our goal has always been to bring online a fuels plant contributing to a sustainable future, and we are thrilled to have Sumitomo Corporation of Americas as our partner in our Louisiana Green Fuels endeavor,” said Paul Schubert, CEO of Strategic Biofuels. “The shift to SAF is an exciting moment for us and our partners, for the energy landscape in Louisiana and for the greater global energy transition overall. Although we have a lot of work ahead of us, our team is fully prepared to advance the project to FID and supply Sumitomo with SAF.”

When the Louisiana Green Fuels project was first announced, Strategic Biofuels garnered recognition for the extraordinarily low carbon footprint of the planned renewable diesel fuel product.

“The footprint of SAF that will now be produced is expected to be so low that just one gallon of it blended with three gallons of fossil-derived jet fuel will reduce the dependency on carbon in the future,” Sumitomo Corporation of Americas stated.

To achieve this carbon reduction in 2029, the plant will utilize: 

• Approximately 1 million tons per year of forestry waste as the feedstock for the biorefinery

• Green energy from an integrated biomass-fired power plant that will take nearly 1 million tons of sawmill waste annually to produce 86 megawatts of power

• Geologic carbon sequestration of 1.36 million metric tons per year of CO2 produced from both of those operations to create this fuel

“Our partnership with Strategic Biofuels is just another example of our commitment to support the energy transition within the Americas,” said Sandro Hasegawa with Sumitomo Corporation of Americas. “Supporting the Louisiana Green Fuels project means bringing groundbreaking technology to the Port of Columbia that enables the local economy and sustains the natural environment. We look forward to leading the investment with our partners in Japan and demonstrating what can be accomplished when global players work together.”