Aviation fuel maker CleanJoule to invest $150M in SLC plant, hire 100

An aviation fuel company will expand operations in Salt Lake City, adding about 100 jobs over the next decade.

The CleanJoule Inc. project represents a $150 million investment by the company.

“Utah has an incredible talent pool and excellent leadership at the city and state levels,” said Mukund Karanjikar, CEO and founder of the company. “Utah’s business-friendly legislature has been instrumental in allowing us to attract outside capital and drive growth. We see immense potential in the Salt Lake City community and are excited to be part of an ecosystem that values forward-thinking approaches and cultivates an environment where businesses and individuals alike can thrive.”

Based in Salt Lake City, CleanJoule aims to eliminate the aerospace industry’s reliance on fossil fuels. It has developed a pathway to produce sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) that has a 10 percent higher energy density than average Jet A and A-1.

The company’s website indicates that most airplanes today use Jet A, with SAF making up less than 1 percent of total fuel in the market. But it foresees future flights running first on 10 percent to 50 percent SAF, and ultimately on 100 percent SAF.

Sixty-five percent of industry emissions reductions by 2050 will come from SAF, it says. At that time, 160 billion gallons of aviation fuel will be needed to power air travel volume and $480 billion will be spent on aviation fuel.

To be a 100 percent “drop-in” replacement for Jet A or RP-1, SAF must match or exceed the performance of those existing fuels, the company says. While other current SAF producers are focused on low-energy density molecules, CleanJoule’s CycloSAF product optimizes for high-energy density cyclo-paraffins, allowing entire fuel tanks to be filled with CycloSAF.

CleanJoule has been backed by Indigo Partners, Cleanhill Partners, GenZero, Frontier Airlines, Wizz Airlines and Volaris.

“Salt Lake City is thrilled about the expansion of CleanJoule and the additional jobs they’ll bring to our residents,” said Lorena Riffo-Jenson, director of Salt Lake City’s Department of Economic Development. “This homegrown success story is a perfect example of the magic that happens at the University of Utah Research Park, which then translates into sustainable manufacturing that’s good for the environment and the economy. When a company chooses to expand here, it reinforces that Salt Lake City is a place where businesses prosper. And when businesses prosper, our families, friends and community thrive.”

The Economic Development Corporation of Utah supported the expansion project by coordinating requests for information on behalf of the company and facilitating connections between CleanJoule and local brokers, including Newmark. Rex Buys, business development manager, led the project for EDCUtah. Jeff Rossi from Newmark assisted the company in finding its location.

“CleanJoule’s transformative work in sustainable aviation fuels exemplifies the innovation and collaboration that thrive in Utah’s business-friendly environment,” said Scott Cuthbertson, EDCUtah’s president. “By driving advancements in fuel efficiency and sustainability, CleanJoule is shaping the future of aviation and strengthening Utah’s position as a hub for cutting-edge aerospace solutions.”

CleanJoule last month announced SpaceSAF, a drop-in replacement for super-refined kerosene fuels used in liquid rockets for space flights. SpaceSAF offers sustainability while increasing payload due to an over 4 percent improvement in energy density compared to existing petroleum-derived fuels. Increased energy per volume of fuel can lead to reduced fuel weight, which in turn can provide for increased payload and/or increased distance, it says.

From the same base material used to produce SpaceSAF, CleanJoule is also producing a superior, sustainable solid rocket fuel for use in existing solid rocket motors. The space propulsion market for both low Earth orbit and geosynchronous orbit missions is estimated to surpass $11 billion by 2032 and will continue growing at approximately 7 percent each year due to increased development and utilization of government and commercial launch vehicles, CleanJoule says.

“It’s well-known that the climate impact of aviation emissions is multiplied when that fuel is burned in the stratosphere,” Karanjikar said. “As an industry, we have a responsibility to take the lessons we’ve learned in aviation and apply them to space exploration before environmental damage is done. Space exploration is an exciting category with massive potential for many industries; it also plays an important role in preserving our national security. In the process of tapping that potential we must carefully consider the enabling technologies including versatile and ‘green’ rocket fuels, such as SpaceSAF, to ensure the most sustainable growth and outcomes.”