DG Fuels plans to build sustainable aviation fuel plant at Loring AFB in Maine, creating jobs and revitalizing the economy. The $4.13B project includes use of biomass and an underground pipeline for fuel transportation, aiming for production to start in 2030.
Photo courtesy of DG Fuels
In 2022, Washington, D.C.-based DG Fuels announced its intentions to build on 1,240 acres of property at the Loring Commerce Center, creating 2,300 jobs during construction and 650 jobs once production begins.
Plans are still under way to construct a $4.13 billion sustainable aviation fuel facility at the former Loring Air Force Base in Limestone, Maine, according to its developers.
In 2022, Washington, D.C.-based DG Fuels announced its intentions to build on 1,240 acres of property at the Loring Commerce Center, creating 2,300 jobs during construction and 650 jobs once production begins, reported The County, an online news hub of Maine's Aroostook County.
Loring was one of two locations, including one in Louisiana, where DG Fuels leaders said they wanted to produce zero to low carbon jet fuel for airports across the United States.
The Maine aviation fuel facility is one of several large projects expected to revive economic development at the Commerce Center, including a more than $55 million potato chip plant projected to bring 75 initial jobs to the region, and other aerospace and technology ventures.
DG Fuels has since announced plans for other facilities in Moorehead, Minn., and in Phelps County, Neb., but remains committed to getting Loring's plant up and running, noted company CEO Michael Darcy.
"[Loring] is part of an overall strategic plan to move the needle on sustainable aviation fuel," he explained Nov. 15.
The company currently expects to break ground on the Loring facility in 2026, Darcy said, with construction expected to take close to five years. It will last a little longer because DG Fuels has chosen to go with a stick-built model rather than the modular process that will occur in Louisiana and at other sites.
A modular process would entail workers hauling large, fabricated building materials to the construction site, but no such fabrication facility exists close enough to Loring, Darcy explained. That means fabrication will need to occur on site, which will add more time to the building effort.
"It wouldn't be feasible to haul 500 tons of modular materials up and down the roads in northern Maine," he said.
Searsport to Loring Underground Pipeline Could Be Reused
DG Fuels is counting on a renewed interest in environmentally sustainable products as it looks to build large-scale production facilities across the United States.
To that end, the company's large investment in the Loring facility will include reviving an underground pipeline that once transported jet fuel from the Maine coastal town of Searsport to Loring Air Force Base. If successful, DG Fuels would use the pipeline to send 33,500 barrels, equivalent to 557,500 gal. of jet fuel, from Loring to Searsport daily for shipment to airports along the northeastern United States.
Additionally, DG Fuels expects to produce 190 million gal. of jet fuel at Loring every year using 1.7 million tons of wood biomass that would be transferred to the plant via local rail lines, and then passed throughout the Loring facility, Darcy said. Six biomass gasifiers on site would use heat, steam, and oxygen to convert biomass to hydrogen without needing combustion.
"On the outside, it will look a lot like a refinery," he told The County. "[The facility] will be a series of industrial buildings with a series of pipes going from one thing to another."
Recent investigations of harmful PFAS, also known as "forever chemicals" near Loring's vacant airport properties have not posed problems for DG Fuels' project, the company said. To avoid potential contamination, DG Fuels decided to move its planned facility from its original 30 acres to another 30-acre plot farther from the airport, noted Darcy.
"We've been working with the Air Force on this and it's been made clear that any [PFAS] remediation they'll need to do won't interfere with our ability to operate," he elaborated.
DG Fuels also is partnering with Green 4 Maine, which currently owns 450 acres at Loring but not the DG Fuels property, to house construction employees at 750 renovated apartment units nearby.
Minnesota, along with Maine and Nebraska, are among 10 locations DG Fuels has had its eyes on for new facilities, according to Twin Cities Business. Construction there is expected to last four years, with production starting around 2030.
The company's $5 billion investment in the Minnesota production plant is designed to employ 650 people and produce 193 million gallons of sustainable fuel every year. And in August, DG Fuels stated that it was looking to build the proposed Nebraska facility with the same price tag, fuel production capacity, and timeframe as the Minnesota plant.
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