01
Feedstock control
Quantity, moisture, contamination, seasonality, transport radius, and competing uses drive delivered cost and availability.
Area of interest · Woody waste to fuel
Woody waste becomes a fuel project only when the supply chain works.
Resource potential is not project supply. A financeable facility needs controlled feedstock, integrated conversion, qualified products, credible offtake, and a capital plan grounded in evidence.
Dependency to move
A defensible feedstock shed aligned with plant specifications and logistics.
Milestone
Supply and offtake evidence strong enough to support the financing plan.
Counterparties
Forest managers, aggregators, technology partners, fuel buyers, and capital.
Market context
A large fuel market meets a difficult feedstock
Woody residues can become sustainable aviation fuel, renewable diesel, intermediates, and bioproducts through several pathways.
Federal agencies set a goal of 3 billion gallons of domestic sustainable aviation fuel annually by 2030 and 35 billion gallons by 2050, creating market pull for scalable low-carbon feedstocks and conversion systems. But resource potential is not the same as project supply.
Project reality
The challenges are connected.
02
Material variability
Differences in form and chemistry affect handling, throughput, yield, catalyst life, and uptime.
03
Process integration
Preprocessing, conversion, upgrading, utilities, emissions controls, and finishing must work as one facility.
04
Commercial proof
Certification, lifecycle-carbon evidence, incentives, offtake, commissioning, and performance guarantees determine bankability.
Sharon Creek approach
Build the feedstock case before the financing case.
Sharon Creek can help define a defensible feedstock shed, connect supply specifications to plant acceptance criteria, map pilot and scale-up gates, structure the offtake and incentive story, and build a capital plan around evidence rather than aspiration. Sam Schutte’s prior project-development experience includes contracting more than 160,000 tons of feedstock and advancing complex energy projects across multiple permitting jurisdictions. That experience is transferable commercial discipline, not a claim that every technology pathway has already been delivered.
Pressure-test your feedstock planWhy Sharon Creek
Feedstock has to work as a contracted operating system.
St. Bernard required difficult organic feedstocks, site constraints, process design, commercial agreements, interconnection, and capital to work together. For woody waste-to-fuel, that same discipline translates to testing the feedstock shed, acceptance specifications, logistics, conversion interfaces, offtake, and financing as one case.
See the St. Bernard development proofDocumented founder proof
Sam Schutte originated the St. Bernard concept in 2016 and led Synthica Energy as CEO and co-founder through its July 2023 groundbreaking and into commissioning.
- $80M1
- St. Bernard project advanced from concept into commissioning
- 9 years
- From Sam Schutte’s original concept work to first feedstock
- 190,000 tons
- Designed annual food-derived feedstock capacity
1Project cost as reported by RETTEW, the facility’s lead design engineer: RETTEW, “St. Bernard Organics-to-Energy Facility”
Why Sharon Creek: Sam’s founder-side experience connects feedstock contracting, site constraints, conversion requirements, offtake, interconnection, and capital—the interfaces that determine whether a woody waste-to-fuel concept can become a project.
Choose the decision path
Build
Venture studio
Turn feedstock, technology, site, logistics, offtake, and capital assumptions into one testable development case.
Explore venture buildingFund in formation
Development capital
Discuss how woody waste-to-fuel development fits the thesis behind a fund in formation; no offering or deployment is implied.
Discuss the fund thesisConnect feedstock, technology, offtake, and capital.
If those workstreams still rely on different assumptions, Sharon Creek can help identify what must be proven next.
Pressure-test your feedstock planSources
Evidence behind this market view.
- SAF Grand Challenge Implementation Framework
market goals and supply-chain constraints
- DOE Feedstock Logistics
collection, preprocessing, transport, and variability
- NREL on Comstock Fuels
lignin-to-SAF scale-up
- Velocys Biomass-to-SAF
integrated woody biomass demonstration