top of page
Aether Fuels

Aether Fuels signs MOU with JetBlue

Photo: JetBlue

Aether Fuels, a venture-backed climate-technology company, announced Sept. 23 that it has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with JetBlue, which creates a pathway for Aether to supply the airline with sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) when commercial production begins.

 


Aether has developed a technology that utilizes a diverse array of waste feedstocks to produce sustainable liquid fuels at a lower cost and greater scale than existing approaches, according to Aether.

 


The MOU extends Aether’s relationship with JetBlue that began when its venture-capital subsidiary, JetBlue Ventures, invested in Aether’s convertible note and Series A financings.

 


Aether’s technology, known as Aether Aurora™, uses a range of waste-carbon feedstocks that do not compete with food or feed value chains.


 

This critical “feedstock flexibility” differentiator enables the large-scale deployment of Aether Aurora technology and contributes to the breakthrough economics that are essential for sustainable liquid fuels, according to Aether, by enabling the conversion of numerous abundant waste-carbon feedstocks into jet fuel.

 


“This overcomes the supply constraints faced by many other SAF production processes that rely on a limited type of often-scarce or cost-constrained feedstocks,” the company stated.

 


The technology, an enhanced version of the Fischer-Tropsch process, combines innovations in chemistry (catalysts), equipment (reactors) and novel process-flow schemes that enable major process simplifications (intensification) when converting waste-carbon streams—such as captured carbon dioxide, industrial waste gases, biogas and treated agricultural residues—into liquid hydrocarbons.

 


“It is a robust, flexible and efficient process engineered to deliver high yield and broad feedstock support at lower investment and operating costs,” Aether stated.

 


This MOU is the first for Aether in the SAF space.

 


It comes as Aether and GTI Energy are constructing a 100 gallon-per-day (gpd) pilot line that builds on the successful operation of an existing 1.5 gpd pilot line.

 


The work leverages eight years of technology development initiated by GTI Energy and accelerates the commercial deployment of Aether Aurora at scale.

 


In parallel, Aether said it is developing a pipeline of commercial-scale production facilities.

 


This includes projects in the U.S. and Southeast Asia to produce SAF and other high-value sustainable liquid fuels in collaboration with select strategic partners.

 


“JetBlue is a leader in proactively transitioning to SAF so their interest in the company and the Aether Aurora technology is gratifying,” said Conor Madigan, co-founder and CEO at Aether. “For a disruptive technology like ours, early and informed input from potential users, including airlines, can accelerate the ramp from R&D to commercialization. We are excited to engage with JetBlue and look forward to supporting their SAF vision.”

 


Sara Bogdan, JetBlue’s managing director of sustainability and ESG, added, “Scaling up production of SAF is the essential challenge to solve for the decarbonization of aviation. Aether Fuels’ technology targets a key need. By enabling access to a much wider range of feedstocks than previously available, the new technology shows incredible promise to help SAF reach the commercial scale needed for the industry transition to renewable fuels. As our investment via JetBlue Ventures demonstrates, we are believers in the Aether technology and team, and we look forward to being part of that journey.”

 


Established in 2022 as a spin-out of Xora Innovation, a deep-tech early-stage investment platform of Temasek, Aether maintains principal offices in the U.S. and Singapore.

0 comments

Kommentare


Frazier, Barnes & Associates LLC
Agriculture for Energy to Grow Hawaii's Economy
Inflectis Digital Marketing
Clean Fuels Alliance America
Plasma Blue
WWS Trading
Sealless canned motor pump technology
HERO BX
Imerys
Veriflux
R.W. Heiden Associates LLC
CPM | Crown Global Companies
Clean Fuels Alliance America
Engine Technology Forum
Topsoe
Biobased Academy®
Evonik
Michigan Advanced Biofuels Coalition
Missouri Soybeans
Ocean Park
Oleo-X
Desmet
EcoEngineers
Myande Group
bottom of page