A renewable fuel plant at the Port of Columbia in Caldwell Parish, Louisiana.

The plant is being developed by Strategic Biofuels.

As of early 2024, the project’s primary renewable fuel product is sustainable aviation fuel, with renewable naphtha as a byproduct utilizing woody biomass waste. The project was originally focused on renewable diesel.

The production capacity of 32 million gallons (120,000 kiloliters) per year and the scheduled commercial operation date in 2029.

The plant will utilize approximately 1 million tons per year of forestry waste as the feedstock for the biorefinery; green energy from an integrated biomass-fired power plant that will take nearly 1 million tons of sawmill waste annually to produce 86 megawatts of power; and geologic carbon sequestration of 1.36 million metric tons per year of CO2 produced from both of those operations to create the fuel.

In February 2024, Strategic Biofuels entered into a Joint Development Agreement with Sumitomo Corporation of Americas (SCOA), a subsidiary of Sumitomo Corporation. According to the agreement, SCOA takes an anchor position and leads the formation of a Japanese-based investment consortium aimed at funding the majority of development capital needed to carry the project to Financial Investment Decision and commencement of construction in early 2025. As part of the agreement, SCOA will also acquire rights at FID to participate for a portion of the full project equity requirement.

SCOA intends to provide a 20-year offtake for the approximately 640 million gallons of renewable fuels produced as well as all state and federal renewable fuel credits.

In April 2024, JX Nippon Oil & Gas Exploration Corporation and Sumitomo Corporation executed consortium agreements to manage investment in the project and jointly establish a consortium Magnolia Sustainable Energy Partners to manage them.