Locally based Emerging Fuels Technology (EFT) is partnering with a Wyoming-based company to create a high-quality sustainable aviation fuel.
The memo of understanding will allow EFT and Raven SR Inc. to integrate their technologies to make renewable diesel fuel as well.
Under the terms of the pact, Raven SR will globally license EFT’s Fischer-Tropsch synthesis and Maxx Jet/Maxx Diesel technology at higher than currently feasible volumes and nearer to market.
Earlier this year, EFT partnered with the California-based carbon transformation company Twelve on a memo of understanding with Alaska Airlines and Microsoft. That agreement targets a demonstration flight proving the viability of commercial use of Twelve’s E-Jet fuel for Microsoft’s business travel on the airline.
The Raven SR technology is a non-combustion thermal process for converting organic waste and landfill gas to hydrogen and Fischer-Tropsch synfuels.
“This MOU represents a meeting of the minds and facilitates a means to produce premium synthetic Fischer-Tropsch fuels from waste materials,” Kenneth Agee, founder and president of EFT, said in a statement.
“We share similar ambitions of accelerating the production of renewable fuels with negative carbon intensity on a cost-competitive basis. We are very impressed with the first-rate quality of Raven SR’s syngas and the efficiency of its process.”
EFT, founded in 2007, last year announced it worked with Twelve and the U.S. Air Force to make a breakthrough jet fuel.
Environment advocates say the big threat from additional CO2 is the greenhouse effect. As a greenhouse gas, excessive CO2 creates a cover that traps the sun’s heat in the atmosphere, warming the planet and the oceans. An increase in carbon dioxide can affect the Earth’s climate by causing changes in weather patterns.
Global aviation produces 1.2 billion tons of CO2 emissions per year and is among the hardest-to-mitigate sectors because it is technically unfeasible to electrify long-haul planes at scale due to power density challenges.
The fossil-free fuel offers a drop-in replacement for petrochemical-based alternatives without any changes to existing plane design or commercial regulations.
“The world consumption of crude oil just keeps going up,” Agee told the Tulsa World in an interview in 2021. “We need a sustainable solution long-term. If that sustainable solution also gives us a carbon balance, it solves the climate problem, as well …”