Air Company, Air Canada collaborate to accelerate eSAF development in North America

Photo: Air Canada

Air Company announced July 20 a strategic collaboration with Air Canada, Canada’s largest airline and the country’s flag carrier, to accelerate the development of power-to-liquid (PtL) sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) in various North American markets by 2025.

The agreement “will give Air Canada access to SAF that is entirely independent of fossil fuels and aims for the highest reduction in greenhouse-gas (GHG) emissions among all sustainable aviation fuels available on the market—targeting a total of 94 percent reduction,” Air Company stated.

The company said this is possible thanks to its unique PtL pathway that utilizes a proprietary catalyst.

Poised to take advantage of the country’s abundant renewable energy resources and the availability of green hydrogen tax credits, Air Company and Air Canada also intend to explore development its PtL SAF in Canada (AIRMADE™ SAF). The fuel is a fully drop-in SAF that has already been tested with the U.S. Air Force as a 100 percent fuel replacement with no blending.

Air Canada joins JetBlue, Virgin Atlantic and Boom Supersonic in collectively agreeing to purchase over 1 billion gallons of Air Company-made PtL SAF.

“We have a grand vision but a pragmatic approach to scaling into industries where we will have the greatest impact,” said Gregory Constantine, CEO and co-founder of Air Company. “Airlines like Air Canada are choosing to work with us because of our technological and cost advantages as we are poised for scale. We have been working diligently to put us in this position and are on a direct pathway towards a seismic shift away from legacy fossil fuel-based production.”

Michael Rousseau, president and CEO of Air Canada, said, “We remain focused on seeking innovative, long-term, sustainable GHG-reduction solutions for aviation, and SAF is a key pillar in our strategy to achieve our ambitious goal of net-zero GHG emissions by 2050. We look forward to working together with Air Company to explore how to advance new, transformational technologies such as their unique CO2-derived SAF to scale commercially in Canada.”

Canada has set ambitious net-zero GHG-emissions targets premised on the development of several technologies, one of which being PtL SAF, a means of fuel production that uses renewable energy to separate hydrogen from water, which is then fused with carbon dioxide.

With the correct federal and provincial policies and incentive market that supports the production of SAF, Canada has the potential to emerge as a world leader in the production and use of energy from renewable resources.

The news follows a series of notable developments for Air Company including a $65 million contract with the U.S. Air Force.

Additionally, the company recently won the NASA Deep Space Food Challenge, which demonstrated the company’s ability to create protein out of carbon dioxide and water.