Summit Next Gen closes on site acquisition, provides updates on ethanol-to-jet SAF project

Summit Next Gen LLC announced Sept. 16 it has closed on its site acquisition for the future development of its previously announced sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) production platform.

Strategically located on the Houston Ship Channel, the selected 60-acre site location will provide Summit Next Gen with substantial optionality to leverage existing and planned marine, pipeline, rail and other logistics infrastructure to cost-competitively source ethanol feedstock for the facility and deliver produced SAF to all major demand markets on behalf of its offtake customers both domestically and internationally.  

The purchase and sale agreement for the site also provides Summit Next Gen with an exclusive option to purchase an additional 40-acre contiguous tract, which would enable capital efficient expansions as SAF demand continues to grow into the future.    

The site acquisition was financed via equity from a successful development-capital fundraising round, with support from existing and new investors in Summit Next Gen. 

The remaining capital commitments will be utilized primarily to advance Summit Next Gen’s final phase of engineering and project design for the facility in collaboration with the company's selected engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) provider, Burns & McDonnell, and licensed process technology from Honeywell UOP, and to continue building out the broader management team. 

As a result of these fundraising efforts, Summit Next Gen has raised all the required capital to advance its project to a final-investment decision (FID), which is expected in 2025.

Additionally, in June, Robert Halpin joined Summit Next Gen to serve as CEO.

Halpin brings significant leadership experience having previously spent over a decade in various executive roles at Crestwood Equity Partners, a publicly traded energy midstream-infrastructure company, most recently serving as president and overseeing the execution of Crestwood’s long-term strategy through the ultimate oversight of commercial, operations, engineering and project management, sustainability, capital allocation and financial activities. 

“Summit Next Gen’s ongoing success represents a continuation of our strategy to leverage our deep roots in the agricultural and ethanol industries to drive substantial value creation for all of our stakeholders, including the many communities in which we live, invest and operate,” said Bruce Rastetter, founder and executive chairman of Summit Agricultural Group. “The completion of this project and commencement of operations will facilitate the creation of the first at-scale ETJ SAF production facility providing critical new markets for our agricultural and ethanol feedstock partners and helping to bridge the supply shortage of SAF globally, as demand for continued decarbonization efforts for the aviation industry exponentially increase.”

Justin Kirchhoff, the CEO of Summit Agricultural Group, added, “Summit Next Gen continues to deliver on key milestones towards successfully executing this transformational project. Bringing Robert on board to lead our efforts as CEO of the company, closing on our strategic site acquisition on the Houston Ship Channel, and successfully completing our next round of development-capital fundraising positions Summit Next Gen to advance our final phase of engineering and project design with Burns & McDonnell and Honeywell UOP, continue building out the management team under Robert’s leadership, and aggressively advance our commercial offtake discussions to position the company for FID by mid-year 2025 and commence operations in 2027.”