The startup Air Company first made a splash three years ago by distilling vodka using captured carbon dioxide. At a converted nightclub in Brooklyn, New York, the company built a maze of tubes and tanks to turn the greenhouse gas into spirits — no grains or potatoes required. Since then, Air Company has tweaked its technology to produce another coveted, crystal-clear liquid: sustainable aviation fuel.
On Thursday, during Climate Week NYC, the startup unveiled a second, larger chemical reactor in Brooklyn. Air Company is now making small batches of CO2-derived jet fuel, including a 5-gallon order for the U.S. Air Force, which recently used the fuel to fly a large drone in northern Florida.
Still, Air Company will need to scale its production exponentially if it’s going to fulfill its latest tall orders.
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JetBlue, Virgin Atlantic and other aviation firms have agreed to buy 1 billion gallons of Air Company’s sustainable aviation fuel over the next decade, the companies said this week. The announcement follows a $30 million investment round in April led by JetBlue’s and Toyota’s venture capital arms, which brought Air Company’s total funding to $40 million.
“Our technology and the products that we make are really a stepping stone to get to massive commodities,” said Gregory Constantine, CEO of Air Company. Along with vodka, the startup makes perfume and hand sanitizer using carbon dioxide captured from beverage manufacturing plants, which produce waste gases during fermentation.
“From a decarbonization point of view, [aviation] is where we can have the most climate impact,” he told Canary Media.
The global aviation industry contributes more than 2 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions every year, a share that’s expected to soar as passenger air travel grows. Many aviation analysts agree that sustainable aviation fuel, or SAF, will play a key role in reducing emissions from long-haul flights and larger aircraft. Batteries and hydrogen, meanwhile, are expected to power mainly short-haul and regional flights.
Airlines currently use minuscule amounts of sustainable aviation fuel: about 26 million gallons in 2021, or well below 1 percent of total jet fuel demand. Nearly all existing SAF production uses corn, soybean, animal fats or used cooking oil. As industry demand increases, experts warn that relying on such materials could displace food supplies, drive deforestation or perpetuate industrial animal farming.
Air Company is among a growing group of startups that are working to replace petroleum-based kerosene and also develop the next generation of alternatives.
The CO2-to-fuel startup Twelve is making aviation fuel using carbon dioxide captured from places like pulp and paper mills and ethanol refineries. LanzaTech makes ethanol from microbes that feed on carbon-rich waste gases emitted by steel mills in China; the resulting product is processed into synthetic kerosene and blended with jet fuel. Irish startup XFuel uses waste materials from construction, forestry and agriculture to make biofuels for planes and cargo ships.
“The time [left] to address aviation emissions is very limited,” said Nicholas Flanders, co-founder and CEO of Twelve. “We think that CO2-based fuels are going to be a really important wedge in this.”
His California-based company is partnering with Alaska Airlines and Microsoft to test its “E-Jet” fuel on a commercial demonstration flight. Twelve recently raised $130 million to industrially scale its technology. (On Wednesday, the startup announced that it will also start producing sustainable marine fuels through a partnership with Virgin Voyages to clean up cruise ships.)
The Biden administration aims to increase U.S. production of SAFs to 3 billion gallons per year by 2030 — an effort that recently received an important funding boost under the Inflation Reduction Act. While airlines and aviation experts applauded the law’s SAF provisions, some critics say the policy risks detracting from other, more immediate solutions to reducing emissions from flying, such as improving aircraft fuel efficiency and electrifying airport equipment.
“Rather than putting all our eggs in the basket of sustainable aviation fuels, we need to have a more comprehensive approach,” said John Fleming, a senior scientist at the Center for Biological Diversity’s Climate Law Institute.
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September 22, 2022 at 08:00PM
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CO2-to-vodka startup Air Company aims higher with aviation fuel - Canary Media
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