In the United States (US), advanced renewable fuel project developer Arbor Renewable Gas, LLC (Arbor Gas) recently announced that secured its underlying capital commitments and selected technology partners for what it says will be the world’s first commercial-scale renewable gasoline plant.
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Headquartered in Houston, Texas (TX), Arbor Gas is developing state-of-the-art, industrial-scale renewable gasoline, and green hydrogen projects to accelerate the U.S. transition to low carbon fuels. The company strategy is to design, build, own, and operate facilities that efficiently convert woody biomass into low carbon intensity renewable gasoline and green hydrogen.
Recently Arbor Gas announced that it had secured capital commitments from EnCap Investments L.P. (EnCap), a leading provider of equity capital to the independent sector of the U.S. energy industry, and from Mercuria Energy Company, LLC (Mercuria), a leading global energy and commodity trading organization.
Our commitment to the Arbor Gas team is continuing EnCap’s tradition of investing in the right management teams to take advantage of a growing opportunity in the energy space. We believe the platform is well-positioned to play a critical role in the production of cost-effective, low carbon intensity fuels at scale and concurrently deliver compelling returns to our limited partners, said Kyle Kafka, EnCap Partner.
With an initial focus on the Texas and Louisiana Gulf Coast, Arbor Gas brings “a unique blend” of management, financing, technology, and project execution skills to successfully advance its vision of a clean, low-carbon transportation fleet utilizing existing infrastructure and vehicles.
Mercuria is pleased to have the opportunity to participate alongside EnCap in backing the excellent management team of Arbor Gas for its development of a high-value, low-carbon transportation fuel infrastructure portfolio. The Arbor Gas investment furthers Mercuria’s commitment to the development of innovative projects with leading technology partners in the global transition towards sustainable energy production, said Brian A. Falik, Mercuria Chief Investment Officer.
JDA with SunGas
The Arbor Gas plants have an anticipated annual production capacity of 15 million (US) gallons (≈ 56.8 million litres). By utilizing waste biomass as the feedstock, Arbor Gas achieves a double benefit by eliminating greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions that would otherwise be produced from decaying wood and at the same time displacing the use of traditional hydrocarbon-based transportation fuels.
Arbor Gas also revealed that it has entered into an exclusive Joint Development Agreement (JDA) with SunGas Renewables Inc (SunGas), a subsidiary of GTI International Inc (GTII), that will provide its gasification systems to Arbor Gas projects.
The SunGas and Arbor Gas management teams have deep experience deploying technology around the world. Our agreement with Arbor Gas provides exclusive access to our gasification technology system for the production of renewable gasoline in Texas and Louisiana. We believe Arbor Gas has the right team, financing, and commercial approach to lead in the decarbonization of the transportation fuels marketplace, said Robert Rigdon, CEO of SunGas.
Tech license from Haldor Topsoe
For the methanol and gasoline synthesis, Arbor Gas has elected to license proprietary technology from Denmark-headed Haldor Topsoe A/S, a global leader in high-performance catalysts and proprietary technologies for the chemical and refining industries.
We are proud that Arbor Gas has chosen our technology for this truly innovative project to decarbonize transportation fuels. By contributing with our world-leading TIGAS technology, a uniquely integrated solution, incorporating the full value chain from syngas to methanol into gasoline, we support Arbor Gas in its efforts to accelerate the US transition to low carbon fuels, shaping a more diverse and sustainable transportation system, said Fei Chen, SVP at Haldor Topsoe.
Haldor Topsoe will supply the methanol synthesis technologies and the backend gasoline synthesis unit (TIGAS). The methanol synthesis loop is based on the modular MeOH-To-Go design.
We are excited to be deploying Haldor Topsoe’s cutting-edge MeOH-To-Go and TIGAS technology in the world’s first commercial-scale renewable gasoline plant, a significant step forward in the formation of meaningful transition fuel volumes. Haldor Topsoe’s long commitment and significant investment in the technology gave us the confidence that our plant can be built on budget with a realistic schedule, providing efficient operations that will operate safely for many decades to come, said Timothy E. Vail, CEO of Arbor Gas.
The facility which could be operational in 2024, is expected to produce 1 000 barrels per day of renewable gasoline with a significantly negative carbon intensity score under California’s Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS).
The Arbor Gas team has been financing, building and operating world-scale energy conversion facilities for decades, with a focus on safe and efficient operations. Bringing proven industrial scale development leadership has been the missing component to delivering cost competitive broad scale distribution of low carbon transportation fuels. With the funding of Arbor Gas, we now have the opportunity to use these skills to advance the global fuel decarbonization effort in a meaningful way, concluded Timothy E. Vail.