Amazon Backs GranBio to Turn Idle Mills Into Jet Fuel

Amazon has invested in GranBio, a biotechnology company that converts forestry residue, crop stalks, and construction debris into sustainable aviation fuel. The deal centers on GranBio's Thomaston, Georgia research site. There, waste wood is broken down and rebuilt into fuel molecules identical to conventional jet fuel, diesel, and gasoline.

Every year, branches, treetops, and scrap lumber pile up across the United States with nowhere useful to go. Much of it ends up in landfills. A large share of it sits in forests as dry fuel, waiting for the next wildfire season.

GranBio, a Brazil-based biotechnology company founded in 2011, has spent years building a process to intercept that waste before it becomes a liability. Its technology strips the carbon out of woody biomass. That carbon gets reassembled into drop-in fuels that work in existing engines, tanks, and pipelines.

2.4 million metric tonnes of sustainable aviation fuel is expected worldwide in 2026, according to the International Air Transport Association, or IATA. That's just 0.8 percent of total jet fuel demand. The gap between what aviation needs and what the industry produces is exactly what GranBio and Amazon are trying to close.

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What Problem Is GranBio's Technology Actually Solving?

GranBio's technology gives value to wood waste that currently causes two separate problems. It targets material that either rots in landfills or fuels wildfires. Instead, that material becomes aviation fuel.

Forestry residue like branches and treetops rarely gets collected. Loggers leave it behind because there's no market for it. Left on the forest floor, it dries out and becomes kindling.

Construction debris follows a similar path. Discarded pallets and plywood scraps usually go straight to landfill. GranBio's process pulls both waste streams into a single supply chain.

The company's site in Thomaston, Georgia, is where Amazon's investment is concentrated. It's the location where GranBio has spent years testing and refining the conversion process before scaling it commercially.

That focus on an existing, working facility separates this deal from many sustainable aviation fuel announcements that describe fuel plants still on the drawing board.

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How Does GranBio Turn Wood Waste Into Jet Fuel?

GranBio's process breaks down woody biomass to release the carbon stored inside plant fiber. That carbon is then rebuilt into fuel molecules chemically identical to fossil-based jet fuel, diesel, and gasoline.

The conversion happens in stages. Raw feedstock, whether it's a tree limb or a broken pallet, gets processed to separate usable carbon from the rest of the material.

One detail sets this process apart from many biofuel pathways. A byproduct of the conversion generates heat for the facility itself, cutting the amount of outside energy the plant needs to run.

The finished products are drop-in fuels. Sustainable aviation fuel, renewable diesel, and renewable gasoline all come out compatible with existing engines, pipelines, and fueling infrastructure. Airlines and trucking fleets don't need new equipment to use them.

That compatibility matters for adoption speed. Drop-in fuel technology lets fuel producers plug into supply chains that already exist, rather than waiting on new engine or airport infrastructure.

Sustainable aviation fuel made from waste feedstock typically cuts lifecycle emissions by more than 80 percent compared to conventional jet fuel, according to World Energy. That reduction is a major reason waste-based pathways draw interest from large corporate buyers like Amazon.

Why Did Amazon Choose to Back GranBio?

Amazon's investment supports GranBio's push to commercialize a fuel source that doesn't compete with food crops. The deal falls under Amazon's Climate Pledge, its commitment to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2040.

The investment amount has not been disclosed by either company. Amazon and GranBio have both kept the financial terms private, so no dollar figure should be treated as confirmed.

What's public is the strategic logic. Amazon relies on aviation and long-haul trucking across its global logistics network, and both sectors are considered hard to decarbonize without new fuel sources.

Airlines worldwide are projected to spend $4.3 billion on sustainable aviation fuel in 2026, according to IATA. Even with that spending, well under one percent of global jet fuel supply is sustainable today. That spending has to go somewhere. Waste-based feedstock is one of the few pathways that can scale without straining food or agricultural supply chains.

Reviving America's Shut-Down Paper Mills

GranBio's scale-up plan centers on old pulp and paper mills, not new construction. Over the next decade, the company intends to convert shuttered mill sites across the U.S. into advanced biorefineries.

Pulp and paper mills once anchored small manufacturing towns across the Southeast and Midwest. Many closed over the past two decades as paper demand fell and production shifted overseas.

Those closures left behind idle infrastructure. Mill sites already have rail access, water rights, and power connections, all things a new fuel plant would otherwise need to build from scratch.

GranBio's chief technology officer, Kim Nelson, framed the approach as a way to prove the model works before expanding it further.

Repurposing dormant mills also means jobs. Communities that lost manufacturing work when a mill closed could see skilled positions return once a biorefinery moves in.

This mill-to-biorefinery approach sets GranBio's plan apart from most SAF capacity expansions. Most of those projects build new facilities instead of reactivating old industrial sites.

How Does GranBio Compare to Other Waste-Based SAF Projects?

GranBio is one of several companies using non-food waste to produce sustainable aviation fuel, but each relies on a different feedstock strategy. The table below places GranBio alongside two projects already active in North America.

Company	Feedstock	Location	Status
GranBio	Forestry residue, crop stalks, construction debris	Thomaston, Georgia	R&D scaling, mill conversion planned
Greenwater Technology	Mill byproducts, underused wood fibre	Thunder Bay, Ontario	Demonstration plant in development
Montana Renewables (Calumet)	Used cooking oil, animal fats, renewable feedstocks	Great Falls, Montana	Operating, expanding capacity

Montana Renewables already runs one of the largest SAF operations in North America using Topsoe's HydroFlex technology. It has also signed large multiyear SAF supply deals to move that fuel to market. Its feedstock depends on fats and oils, not wood waste. GranBio's wood-based pathway avoids competing for that same supply.

North American SAF production has grown fast in a short window. Capacity reached 30,000 barrels per day in 2025, up from just 2,000 barrels per day at the start of 2024, according to Decarbonfuse. Waste-wood pathways like GranBio's are part of what's driving that curve upward.

What's Next for GranBio's Fuel Pipeline?

GranBio's next major milestone sits outside the Amazon deal, at a separate site in Jesup, Georgia. The company is developing a cellulosic SAF project there with Rayonier Advanced Materials, a cellulose products manufacturer, targeting startup in the fourth quarter of 2027.

Georgia isn't the only state building large-scale SAF capacity right now. A planned Louisiana SAF facility is targeting 13,000 barrels per day using a different conversion pathway, underscoring how many routes the industry is testing at once.

That project uses GranBio's proprietary AVAP technology to convert biomass into second-generation ethanol. The ethanol is then upgraded into aviation fuel. It's partly financed by a $100 million grant GranBio won from the U.S. Department of Energy.

Two active projects on two Georgia sites give GranBio a broader base to prove out its waste-to-fuel technology before the mill conversion plan expands nationwide. That expansion builds on a production base that already grew fifteenfold in two years, climbing from 2,000 to 30,000 barrels per day nationwide.

GranBio's roadmap also intersects with growing demand pressure elsewhere in the industry. Global SAF demand for 2030 is projected at 12.8 million tonnes, according to SkyNRG's 2026 SAF Market Outlook. That's down from an earlier forecast of 15.5 million tonnes, a revision SkyNRG attributes mainly to weaker near-term SAF economics in the U.S.

Companies supplying fuel from non-food, non-oil feedstocks are positioned to fill that gap. They avoid the supply constraints now hitting cooking-oil and animal-fat based producers.

Old mill towns losing their main employer is a familiar story across the American Southeast. GranBio's plan flips that story around. The same rail lines and water access that once fed paper production could soon feed jet fuel production instead.

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