McDermott SVP: 'This agreement marks the commencement of a collaborative relationship' between McDermott and Gevo

On July 24, Houston-based engineering and construction solutions provider McDermott entered into a master services agreement (MSA) with Gevo, a biofuel company headquartered in Englewood, Colorado, to work on sustainable aviation fuel facilities, according to Cision PR Newswire.

"Gevo is a premier provider in the fast-growing sustainable aviation fuel market,” McDermott Senior Vice President (SVP) Vaseem Khan told Cision PR Newswire. “This agreement marks the commencement of a collaborative relationship through which we will support Gevo's low-cost delivery and speed-to-market goals for Gevo's novel alcohol-to-jet process design, which incorporates Axen's ethanol-to-jet process."

The first facility to be built under the agreement will go up in near Lake Preston, South Dakota. The companies said that the Net-Zero 1 plant is slated to generate nearly 65 million gallons of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), diesel and renewable gasoline that yields a lifecycle net-zero greenhouse gas footprint upon consumption.

The MSA calls for McDermott, which oversees the project, to provide engineering, execution planning and pricing for the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) phase for the South Dakota project. If the agreement is successfully executed, a final EPC contract for Net-Zero 1 will be finalized to coincide with the Gevo's financing activities.

“This MSA is the first step towards adding McDermott as a project EPC partner,” Gevo President and Chief Operating Officer Dr. Chris Ryan told Cision PR Newswire. “Adding McDermott to our team fortifies further our capabilities in project execution and modularization.”

According to Cision PR Newswire, the Net-Zero 1 facility not only could act as a contributor to sustainable aviation fuel production, but it’s projected to produce 550 million pounds of high-value nutritional products every year. Wind energy will produce the electricity needed to power the plant, and renewable natural gas (RNG) sourced from upstream facilities will go toward fulfilling the facility’s thermal energy needs.