Sora Fuel Secures $6M to Produce Atmospherically-Sourced Sustainable Aviation Fuel
01 Agosto 2024 - 10:30AM
Business Wire
The startup captures and uses atmospheric CO2
at costs that are an order of magnitude lower than existing
processes, relying only on water and renewable electricity to
produce SAF.
Sora Fuel, a startup producing sustainable aviation fuel (SAF)
using only water, air and renewable energy, today announced it has
raised an oversubscribed $6 million seed round. The Engine Ventures
led the round, with Wireframe Ventures and others participating.
The funding will be used to expand Sora Fuel’s Boston-based team,
develop commercialization partnerships and further advance the
company’s novel technology.
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The Sora Fuel team (Photo: Business
Wire)
Aviation emissions have quadrupled since the 1960s, with
aircraft currently accounting for 2.5% of global CO2 emissions and
approximately 4% of global warming. As demand for air travel
continues to surge, SAF will play a crucial role in decarbonizing
this hard-to-abate sector. However, existing SAF production
processes are fundamentally constrained, requiring vast amounts of
energy, feedstocks and investment to make a meaningful impact. For
example, today’s only commercially viable SAF, the Hydroprocessed
Esters and Fatty Acids (HEFA) process relies on limited waste oil
feedstock that alone can cost $3.50 per gallon, while the
alcohol-to-jet process competes with agriculture and leads to soil
degradation. Waste gasification and point-source power-to-liquid
processes are less reliant on valuable resources, however both
provide limited greenhouse gas reduction potential, as the
underlying feedstocks of both processes contain / rely on
non-biogenic sources of carbon.
Sora Fuel offers a new path for producing SAF by capturing and
using atmospheric CO2 at costs that are an order of magnitude lower
than existing processes. The company’s novel technology includes a
liquid bicarbonate electrolyzer that delivers direct air capture
(DAC) CO2 at just $20 per ton, operating in a fully closed-loop
system that uses only water and renewable electricity to produce
syngas. Compared to incumbent DAC solutions, Sora Fuel’s
DAC-to-fuels approach dramatically reduces overall energy inputs,
eliminates the need for feedstocks (other than air and water), and
provides a scalable process for efficiently and cost effectively
producing SAF and any other downstream products of syngas.
“Sora Fuel’s technology eliminates 90% of the energy currently
required in standard DAC processes, opening up an entirely new and
more sustainable path for producing carbon negative fuels,” said
Gareth Ross, co-founder and CEO of Sora Fuel. “Our patented,
closed-loop system enables the direct generation of an economical
product and overcomes widespread feedstock constraints, allowing us
to produce SAF at prices comparable to current Jet A fuel.”
“There’s no path to meeting our climate goals without managing
to reduce the carbon intensity of aviation. Fuels are the backbone
of that sector because of their energy density, and decarbonizing
fuels requires new pathways for capturing and utilizing CO2 to
scalably produce SAF,” added Michael Kearney, General Partner at
Engine Ventures and Sora Fuel Board member. “The company’s
innovative electrolyzer technology will enable the operation of
highly profitable SAF plants that are unconstrained by location – a
crucial feature considering that 500 million metric tons of SAF are
needed by 2050 to meet the global aviation industry’s environmental
targets.”
Sora Fuel was conceived within The Engine Ventures based on
technology from Curtis Berlinguette’s lab at the University of
British Columbia. The company’s Chief Science Officer, Patrick
Sarver, earned a PhD in Chemistry from Princeton University,
completed his postdoctoral research at MIT and worked as a Venture
Associate at The Engine Ventures prior to co-founding Sora Fuel.
Ross was previously an Executive in Residence at The Engine
Ventures, supporting portfolio companies across the clean energy
landscape and spent 15 years as an executive at MassMutual, where
he most recently oversaw technology and operations.
Sora Fuel is actively hiring for its Boston-based team, and
initiating partnerships and offtake agreements with purchasers of
jet fuel. For more information or to contact the company directly,
visit www.sorafuel.com.
About Sora Fuel
Sora Fuel produces sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) from CO2
directly captured from the air. The company’s
groundbreakingly-efficient, closed-loop production system leverages
a patented bicarbonate electrolyzer that relies only on water and
renewable electricity. Sora Fuel was conceived within Engine
Ventures based on technology from Curtis Berlinguette’s lab at the
University of British Columbia. For more information, visit
www.sorafuel.com or follow the company on LinkedIn.
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Media Contact Kerry Walker kerry@engineventures.com