Agricultural innovation company Terviva has announced an investment from Chevron Renewable Energy Group to help scale production of pongamia for low carbon renewable fuel.

“Crude pongamia oil can be converted into biodiesel, renewable diesel, or sustainable aviation fuel (SAF). In working with Chevron Renewable Energy Group, we can increase the availability of feedstocks for production of these fuels while promoting our mission to revitalize agricultural land and communities. This relationship benefits stakeholders up and down the value chain, from farmers cultivating pongamia to fleets looking for lower carbon fuels,” said Naveen Sikka, founder, and CEO of Terviva.

Pongamia is a regenerative, permanent tree crop that stores carbon and produces a bean pod that can be used in turn to produce food, feed, and fuel. Terviva has been developing elite pongamia cultivars over 15 years of research trials spanning nearly 2,000 acres in Florida, Hawai’i and Australia. “Terviva’s pongamia trees produce three or more metric tons of beans per acre, which feature a high oil content,” said Sikka.

Terviva recently expanded its executive leadership team to include Simmarpal Singh as Chief Operating Officer, previously serving as CEO-India for COFCO International and prior to that for Louis Dreyfus India. Singh will focus on strengthening the upstream and midstream processes to expand the footprint of Terviva and pongamia across India, the U.S., Australia, and other parts of the world. “I think there is huge potential around pongamia,” said Singh. “I look forward to leveraging my deep experience in farming, origination, manufacturing, and international stakeholder management to work in a new commodity value chain that directly contributes toward improving our global climate.”

Learn more about Terviva and pongamia in this interview with CEO Naveen Sikka and COO Simmarpal Singh.
Interview with Terviva (19:04)