Twelve Opens AirPlant One in Washington, the First US Commercial Plant Making Jet Fuel From Captured CO2 and Renewable Electricity
Twelve's AirPlant One opened June 10 in Moses Lake, producing roughly 50,000 gallons of power-to-liquid jet fuel a year for Alaska Airlines and Microsoft.
Overview
Carbon-transformation company Twelve opened AirPlant One in Moses Lake, Washington, on June 10, calling it the first commercial-scale plant in the United States to produce jet fuel from captured carbon dioxide and renewable electricity, according to the company’s announcement distributed via PR Newswire. The facility makes a power-to-liquid sustainable aviation fuel that Twelve markets as E-Jet, along with E-Naphtha, a petroleum-free chemical feedstock.
Unlike conventional sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) made from crops or waste oils, AirPlant One’s process uses no biomass. It captures CO2, combines it with water and renewable electricity using electrolyzer technology, and synthesizes the result into hydrocarbon fuel molecules, the PR Newswire announcement states.
What We Know
At initial capacity, AirPlant One is designed to produce approximately 50,000 gallons of E-Jet SAF per year, according to a GlobeNewswire release from engineering firm Vista Projects. That same release says the plant runs on 100% hydropower from the Columbia River and sources its CO2 from local ethanol producers.
The fuel meets the ASTM D7566 Annex A1 specification, making it a drop-in product compatible with existing aircraft and airport infrastructure, per the Vista Projects release. Twelve says E-Jet delivers up to 90% lower lifecycle CO2 emissions compared to conventional jet fuel, according to the PR Newswire announcement.
The plant’s output is backed by long-term customers. Alaska Airlines intends to operate regular domestic flights using fuel from the facility, and Microsoft signed a SAF offtake agreement structured on book-and-claim accounting and supported the company through its Climate Innovation Fund, the PR Newswire announcement states. Twelve said the opening followed a $645 million funding round, according to the same release.
“Today, that thesis is operational and Alaska Airlines will fly on fuel made right here in Washington State,” said Nicholas Flanders, Co-Founder and CEO of Twelve, in the PR Newswire announcement. Ryan Spies, Alaska Airlines Managing Director of Sustainability, added in the same release: “Our partnership with Twelve and Microsoft demonstrates the power of innovation and collaboration to successfully advance SAF.”
The facility was engineered end-to-end by Vista Projects, a Calgary-based integrated engineering firm. “AirPlant™ One is proof that a first-of-a-kind CO₂-to-SAF facility can be engineered for scale, built on schedule, and brought to commercial operation on the first attempt,” said Scott Mussbacher, CEO of Vista Projects, in the GlobeNewswire release.
Context
The opening caps several years of commercial commitments to Twelve. United Airlines announced an investment through its United Airlines Ventures Sustainable Flight Fund in May 2025, describing the company as one that converts CO2 and water into sustainable aviation fuel using renewable energy, according to a United Airlines release via PR Newswire. That release also noted Twelve had signed a 14-year contract with a large European-based airline company to supply 260 million gallons of SAF across five airlines.
“Scaling the SAF industry is the major hurdle air travel needs to clear in order to increase the supply and reduce the price of lower carbon fuels,” said Andrew Chang, head of United Airlines Ventures, in the United Airlines release.
What We Don’t Know
The announcements do not disclose AirPlant One’s production cost per gallon, how the roughly 50,000-gallon initial output compares to the volume Twelve has committed to deliver under its multi-year offtake agreements, or a timeline for scaling beyond the first plant. Twelve describes AirPlant One as the first of a planned series of commercial facilities but did not specify the capacity or schedule of subsequent sites in the materials reviewed.
Analysis
At roughly 50,000 gallons a year, AirPlant One is a demonstration of a commercial process rather than a volume that meaningfully dents aviation’s fuel demand — global jet fuel consumption runs into the hundreds of billions of gallons annually. Its significance lies in proving that a power-to-liquid pathway, long discussed but rarely built at commercial scale, can be financed, engineered, and brought online with airline and corporate offtake in place. Whether that template scales depends on factors the opening did not address: the cost of synthetic fuel relative to both fossil jet fuel and bio-based SAF, and the availability of cheap renewable electricity and captured CO2 at far larger volumes.