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53 min ago 2 min read
US-based carbon technology company Airco has opened a manufacturing facility in New Britain, Pennsylvania to scale domestic production of its defence centred e-fuel production systems.
The Pennsylvania site will serve as Airco’s primary manufacturing base for its Mad Fuel system, consolidating research, development, and engineering to deepen government partnerships and expand production.
Airco’s new-to-manufacture Mad Fuel system is a mobile, containerised platform that produces synthetic drop-in fuels at or near the point of use from electricity, hydrogen, and carbon dioxide (CO2).
One for decentralised e-fuel systems is the availability of CO2.
Airco told gasworld it acquires CO2 from integrated direct air capture (DAC) systems and other available point sources.
The company also said the system is feedstock-agnostic, meaning it can draw on solar, wind, nuclear, or carbon source energy to deliver a fully-formulated fuel product.
Gregory Constantine, CEO of AIRCO, said, “[It represents] a fundamental shift from fuel as a commodity to fuel as infrastructure.”
Airco, which is advancing the technology through funded demonstrations and commercial pilots, hopes it can strengthen fuel resilience.
The system is considered one of the US Department of War’s six critical technologies.
In its final form, networks of the Mad Fuel system will operate as AI-coordinated self-optimising “fuel swarms”, autonomously coordinating fuel production to support jets and ground vehicles in the defence sector.
The technology is backed by the innovation branch of the US Department of the Air Force (AFWERX), with the most recent award totalling $15M, following a $65m deal secured with the US Department of Defence (DoD) in 2023.
The company says its technology has wider applications in civilian infrastructure and domestic energy security.
