LIMESTONE, Maine – Plans are still underway to build a $4.13 billion sustainable aviation fuel facility at the former Loring Air Force Base, according to developers.
In 2022, Washington D.C.-based DG Fuels announced its intentions to build within 1,240 acres of property at the Loring Commerce Center, creating 2,300 jobs during construction and 650 jobs once production begins.
Loring was one of two locations, including one in Louisiana, where DG Fuels leaders said they wanted to produce zero to low carbon jet fuel for airports across the U.S. The facility is one of several large projects expected to revive economic development at the Commerce Center, including an over $55 million potato chip plant projected to bring 75 initial jobs to the region, and other aerospace and technology ventures.
DG Fuels has since announced plans for other facilities in Moorehead, Minnesota, and in Phelps County, Nebraska, but remains committed to getting Loring’s plant up and running, said CEO Michael Darcy.
“[Loring] is part of an overall strategic plan to move the needle on sustainable aviation fuel,” Darcy said Friday.
The company currently expects to break ground on the Loring facility in 2026, with construction lasting close to five years, Darcy said.
Construction at Loring will go on a little longer because the company has chosen to go with a stick-built model rather than the modular process that will occur in Louisiana and at other sites.
A modular process would entail workers hauling large fabricated building materials to the construction site, but no such fabrication facility exists close enough to Loring, Darcy noted. That means fabrication will need to occur on site, adding more time to the build.
“It wouldn’t be feasible to haul 500 tons of modular materials up and down the roads in northern Maine,” Darcy said.
DG Fuels is counting on a renewed interest in environmentally sustainable products as it looks to build large-scale production facilities across the U.S.
Most recently, the company announced plans for a $5 billion facility in Moorehead, Minnesota, that will also employ 650 people and produce 193 million gallons of sustainable fuel every year. Minnesota is one of 10 locations DG Fuels is eyeing for new facilities, according to Twin Cities Business. Construction there is expected to last four years, with production starting around 2030.
In August, DG Fuels stated that they’re looking to also build a facility in Phelps County, Nebraska, with the same price tag, fuel production capacity and timeframe for starting production as the Minnesota location.
At Loring, DG Fuels plans to revive an underground pipeline that once transported jet fuel from the Maine coastal town of Searsport to Loring Air Force Base. If successful, DG Fuels would use the pipeline to transport 33,500 barrels, equaling 557,500 gallons, of jet fuel from Loring to Searsport daily for shipment to airports along the northeastern U.S.
DG Fuels expects to produce 190 million gallons of jet fuel at Loring every year using 1.7 million tons of wood biomass that would be transferred to Loring via local rail lines, and then passed throughout the Loring facility, Darcy said. Six biomass gasifiers would then use heat, steam and oxygen to convert biomass to hydrogen without needing combustion.
“On the outside, it will look a lot like a refinery,” Darcy said. “[The facility] will be a series of industrial buildings with a series of pipes going from one thing to another.”
Recent PFAS investigations near Loring’s vacant airport properties have not posed problems to DG Fuel’s project. To avoid potential contamination, the company decided to move their planned facility from its original 30 acres to another 30-acre plot farther from the airport, Darcy said.
“We’ve been working with the Air Force on this and it’s been made clear that any [PFAS] remediation they’ll need to do won’t interfere with our ability to operate,” Darcy said.
DG Fuels is working with Green 4 Maine, which currently owns 450 acres at Loring but not the DG Fuels property, to house construction employees at 750 renovated apartment units nearby. Green 4 Maine President Scott Hinkel declined to provide an update on the housing project.
Correction: A previous version of this story misstated the construction timeline for DG Fuels’ Loring facility.
