From CO₂ to Jet Fuel: America's First E-Jet Plant Takes Flight

MOSES LAKE, WA – June 11, 2026 – Amid the arid landscape of Eastern Washington, a new kind of manufacturing plant quietly powered up this week, its output not cars or computer chips, but the very future of aviation fuel. Twelve, a clean energy innovator, officially cut the ribbon on AirPlant™ One, the first commercial-scale facility in the United States designed to produce sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) directly from carbon dioxide, water, and renewable electricity.

The milestone represents a critical test for the aviation industry's ambitious decarbonization goals. While airlines have committed to a net-zero future, the supply of sustainable fuels remains a trickle in an ocean of demand. AirPlant™ One, producing a novel category of fuel called E-Jet®, aims to change that by proving that a power-to-liquid (PtL) process can move from the laboratory to commercial reality. The project's success, however, hinged not just on Silicon Valley innovation but on 40 years of industrial engineering expertise from north of the border, provided by Calgary-based Vista Projects.

A 'First-of-a-Kind' Feat of Engineering

Unlike most SAF on the market today, which is derived from biological feedstocks like used cooking oil or agricultural waste, Twelve's E-Jet® fuel is synthetic. The process, which the company calls "industrial photosynthesis," uses a proprietary electrolyzer to transform captured CO₂ and water into hydrocarbons using 100% renewable hydropower from the nearby Columbia River. The result is a drop-in fuel, chemically identical to its fossil-based counterpart, that meets ASTM D7566 specifications and requires no changes to existing aircraft or infrastructure.

This PtL pathway bypasses the feedstock constraints that limit the scalability of many biofuels. With CO₂ sourced from local ethanol producers, the inputs are abundant. However, building the first commercial plant to harness this technology presented immense practical hurdles.

"Building something for the first time is uniquely challenging. There is no reference plant to lean on, and every interface between systems has to hold up on the first attempt," said Scott Mussbacher, CEO of Vista Projects, the firm responsible for the plant's end-to-end engineering. From front-end design (FEED) through to on-site construction support, the Canadian company navigated the complexities of integrating novel technology into a reliable, commercial-scale operation.

The sentiment was echoed by Twelve's leadership. "Vista Projects brought the right mindset to a genuinely hard problem: building something that had never been built before,” said Nicholas Flanders, CEO & Co-founder of Twelve. The result, he noted, is "an operating plant producing E-Jet® and E-Naphtha™ from CO₂, water and renewable electricity, right here in Washington State."

The Bottom Line: De-Risking the Future of Fuel

For any innovation to impact the bottom line, it needs customers. AirPlant™ One's viability was cemented by long-term offtake agreements with corporate giants Alaska Airlines and Microsoft, who not only guaranteed a market for the fuel but actively participated in funding its development.

Microsoft, through its Climate Innovation Fund, was an early investor and signed a book-and-claim agreement to purchase the fuel's carbon reduction benefits to offset its corporate travel emissions. Alaska Airlines, a strategic partner and investor through its Alaska Star Ventures arm, committed to purchasing the E-Jet® fuel for use on its domestic flights. These advance commitments were instrumental in de-risking the project and unlocking a formidable $645 million financing package for Twelve in 2024, led by TPG Rise Climate.

The economics of E-Jet fuel present a fascinating business case. While current production costs for PtL fuels are high—estimated at $3.5 to $5 per liter compared to roughly $0.60 for conventional jet fuel—Twelve argues for a different long-term value proposition. By tying production costs to long-term renewable electricity contracts rather than volatile crude oil markets, the company claims it can offer over 10 years of potential price predictability. In a notoriously cyclical industry like aviation, that stability could be a powerful incentive, provided the initial green premium can be overcome through scale and efficiency gains.

Scaling Up: A Drop in the 100-Billion-Gallon Bucket

With an initial capacity of approximately 50,000 gallons per year, AirPlant™ One's output is a symbolic but crucial first step. The global aviation industry consumes around 100 billion gallons of fuel annually, and while SAF production is doubling year-over-year, it still accounted for just 0.2% of total usage in 2023. AirPlant™ One's production alone will not move the needle, but its role as a commercial proof-of-concept is invaluable.

The key challenge for Twelve and the entire e-fuels sector is scale. According to the International Air Transport Association (IATA), meeting European and UK SAF mandates for 2030 would require roughly 20 commercial-scale refineries like AirPlant™ One to come online. The primary bottleneck remains the high cost and limited availability of cheap, abundant renewable electricity and the infrastructure for carbon capture.

However, the PtL pathway's advantages in scalability—relying on abundant inputs of CO₂ and water—make it a critical part of the long-term solution. Unlike biofuels, which can require 30 times more land and 1,000 times more water, Twelve's process offers a more sustainable footprint, a key factor as global resource competition intensifies. Twelve claims its E-Jet® SAF can reduce lifecycle emissions by up to 90% compared to its fossil equivalent, a figure that will be closely scrutinized as the industry charts its path to net-zero by 2050.

A Cross-Border Blueprint for Decarbonization

Beyond the technology, the opening of AirPlant™ One highlights a powerful narrative of cross-border collaboration. The project stands as a testament to how Canadian engineering expertise is becoming a critical enabler of the U.S. clean energy transition. Vista Projects, with a four-decade history in complex energy projects, has now established a definitive track record in the nascent e-fuels market.

This success is not a one-off. The Calgary firm is already leveraging this experience for a growing portfolio of synthetic fuel projects, including those utilizing the Fischer-Tropsch pathway. "This is an emerging industry, and we are excited to help it scale," Mussbacher stated, emphasizing that success depends less on a specific technology pathway and more on having the "right mindset and engineering philosophy."

As both the U.S. and Canada advance policies to incentivize SAF production, projects like AirPlant™ One serve as a working blueprint. They demonstrate that turning ambitious climate goals into steel-in-the-ground reality requires a potent combination: visionary technology, bold corporate investment, and the deep, practical engineering knowledge needed to connect the two. In Moses Lake, that combination has just begun to take flight.