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49 min ago 2 min read
Climate technology firm Aether Fuels has successfully constructed, commissioned, and operated its integrated sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) technology platform at its Chicago, Illinois research and development (R&D) facility.
The demonstration line combines the company’s 2.5 barrel-per-day (bpd) Aurora tri-converter and upgrader units, integrated together with North Carolina technology development firm RTI’s existing Fischer-Tropsch reactor in a key step towards scale-up and commercial validation.
It used Kentucky landfill-derived renewable natural gas (RNG) and industrial captured carbon dioxide (CO2) feedstocks in an electrified syngas generation process to produce SAF meeting ASTM D7566 specification. The production was certified by third-party AmSpec.
Aether Fuels believes it is the first company in North America to produce SAF from mass-balanced RNG and captured industrial CO2 at scale, in line with ASTM standards.
Under the ASTM D7566 specification, alternative fuels can be blended with conventional kerosene up to 50% without requiring modification to existing aircraft tanks, pipelines, or airport fueling systems.
Conor Madigan, CEO and co-founder of Aether Fuels, said the company started with a pilot demonstration, then scaled up over 50 times in standalone demo units, before bringing together the demo units in an integrated line to produce ASTM-standard SAF.
Dhaval Shah, Chief Technology Officer at Aether Fuels, added, “The data from this demonstration informs and de-risks the design of our 50-bpd Project Beacon plant in Singapore, as we continue our rapid journey to large-scale commercial deployment.”
In May, Aether Fuels it was partnering with Singapore-based FlyORO Technologies to explore the development of a SAF supply chain, centred on Project Beacon.
Project Beacon is Aether’s planned commercial demonstration facility at the Aster Pulau Bukom refinery in Singapore, which aims to be the first commercial-scale SAF facility in Southeast Asia and will use a more feedstock-flexible route to production using waste carbon.
