Eagle County is a little closer to making "sustainable" aviation fuel from waste at the county landfill.
The Eagle County Board of Commissioners on Tuesday signed a letter of interest with SynTec Holdings of Morris, Illinois. That non-binding agreement is the first step toward SynTec building a plant on 13 acres of property at the landfill and using up to 90 tons per day of municipal solid waste to convert into aviation fuel.
According to the letter, which is a non-binding agreement, the county will authorize a 10-year lease with a 10-year renewal option with SynTec, which will build and operate a facility to convert solid waste into aviation fuel. That fuel would then be transported to Signature Aviation's private aviation facility at the Eagle County Regional Airport, formerly the Vail Valley Jet Center. That fuel will then be mixed with standard aviation fuel and used in the private jets that use the facility. Signature Aviation has had a sustainable fuel program since 2022, but that fuel is trucked in from outside Eagle County.
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According to the document, SynTec will be responsible for obtaining all necessary county land use approvals and will also be responsible for all project financing.
The letter states that the county will benefit from extending the life of the landfill. Syntec's plant will use only "clean" household waste. No hazardous or construction waste will be allowed.
Asked by Commissioner Jeanne McQueeney to define "sustainable aviation fuel," SynTec CEO Wayne McFarland said that his firm's process "puts less or no new carbon into the environment." Another gallon of fossil fuel drilled, refined and put into a vehicle puts more carbon into the environment, McFarland said. Sustainable fuel uses material that has already put carbon into the environment, extracts energy from it, and uses it as fuel.
McFarland said the project will ultimately be an "amazing" one for Eagle County.
"There are no downsides to this," he said, noting that the amount of waste used will allow the county to be almost "landfill-free." And, he added, with people flying out of the Eagle County Regional Airport on sustainable fuel, "Everybody's going to want to be you."
Commissioner Matt Scherr noted that the document approved Tuesday is just a letter of intent. But, he added, the SynTec proposal is "an exciting idea."
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