Green Plains flies high on jet fuel JV with United Airlines

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Green Plains (NASDAQ:GPRE) +10.9% in Tuesday's trading following news it entered a joint venture with United Airlines (NASDAQ:UAL) and Tallgrass Energy to develop and commercialize sustainable aviation fuel technology that uses ethanol as its feedstock.

The companies said they will jointly invest $50M to form Blue Blade Energy to develop the technology.

If the technology is successful, Blue Blade is expected to proceed with the construction of a pilot facility in 2024, followed by a full-scale facility that could begin commercial operations by 2028.

Green Plains (GPRE) will supply the low-carbon ethanol feedstock, Tallgrass will manage research and development of the technology including pilot plant development, and United Airlines (UAL) will assist with SAF development, fuel certification and into-wing logistics, and has agreed to purchase up to 2.7B gallons of SAF produced from the venture.

Also on Tuesday, activist investor Ancora Holdings sent a letter to Green Plains' (GPRE) board urging the company to explore a sale.