The U.S. Air Force and Defense Innovation Unit have awarded startup Air Company with a $65 million contract to create sustainable aviation fuel out of carbon dioxide pulled from the atmosphere.
The AIRMADE SAF is created by a process that uses a catalytic chemical reaction where carbon monoxide and hydrogen in syngas, a mixture of both, is converted into hydrocarbons. Air Company’s technology simplifies the conversion process into a single-step system that allows the creation of fuel-grade paraffins.
Air Company won the spot by winning the Air Force’s Project FIERCE competition by fueling a drone with ready-made jet fuel. The Hill reported the U.S. Air Force plans to attempt to create a decentralized supply chain for jet fuel, which can allow future American military outposts to produce their own.
With shipping-container-sized fuel factories, Air Company hopes it can supplement or replace the current supply chains that route fuel from wells through refineries, ports and eventually to bases.
“You don’t want to have to ship jet fuel around,” Air Company Chief Technology Officer Stafford Sheehan told The Hill.
Sheehan had noticed that fuel-related incidents like explosive accidents were a prime cause of death during wars in both Iraq and Afghanistan. By allowing bases to produce their own fuel and cutting down the transportation of fuel, it can cut down the related accidents and deaths.
The industry is pushing to transition to alternative fuel sources to achieve net zero emissions and carbon neutrality industry-wide by 2050. As The Hill reports, “it proposes to turn the global jet industry into a circular closed-loop where carbon is captured and released into the atmosphere as the fuel is produced and used.”
Air Company states that the most abundant pollutant can be turned into a “never-ending resource.”
By scaling its technology across all potential verticals, Air Company projects the impact can avoid 10.8 percent of global CO2 emissions, which equates to over 4.6 billion tons of CO2 annually. The impurity-free carbon-negative AIRMADE alcohols and alkanes are funneled into different totes and either distributed to partners or used in AIR products. Water is fed through the electrolyzer to begin the process again.
While the development of sustainable fuel is already underway, the transportation of this fuel often relies on fossil fuel or diesel-powered vehicles. By utilizing Air Company’s technology, the production of on-site fuel and the reduction of emissions can offer a safer fuel source.
The military has been rolling out climate commitments, pledging to cut greenhouse gases by 50 percent by 2030, bases electrically self-sufficient by 2035 and every base carbon neutral by 2050.
Air Company was formed in 2019 to rethink and rework solutions to change how we engage with the climate crisis. The company is prioritizing the use of CO2 to reduce atmospheric greenhouse gas levels through carbon utilization technology.
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