Sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) developer Air Company has been awarded a sliding scale contract by the U.S. Air Force (USAF) worth up to $65 million to scale up production and install its technology on-site at military bases. As Air Company’s Airmade SAF is derived from captured carbon dioxide and water—essentially air, it can be made anywhere and would not be tied to the availability of a specific feedstock. The company is moving through the approval process with ASTM, the governing body that establishes the standards and specifications for fuels, as it works to expand production levels.
Last year, in a program named Project Fierce, the company supplied the USAF with a small amount of Airmade SAF—produced at its Brooklyn, New York pilot facility—which was successfully tested in an unmanned flight. According to the USAF, “the most recent round of testing confirmed it as the first fuel made entirely from carbon dioxide emissions that matches the properties and performance of jet A-1, and contains all necessary components of jet fuel, including aromatics.” The lack of aromatics in all other forms of SAF has caused the ASTM to certify their use only in blends with conventional jet fuel up to 50 percent, meaning the Airmade SAF could theoretically be widely used in its neat, unblended state if and when approved.
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