The U.S. Air Force switches to sustainable fuel. The U.S. Department of Defense and Air Force Innovation Unit signed a contract with Air Company that will pay the start-up a total of $65 million to produce an environmentally friendly fuel under the name AIRMADE. This was explained by the company that benefited from the multi-million dollar contract on its Twitter profile:
We're proud to announce that we’ve won a contract from the Defense Innovation Unit & U.S. Air Force for our AIRMADE™ Sustainable Aviation Fuel. This will enable the production of on-site fuel, reducing emissions & offering a safe fuel source. Learn more: https://t.co/mOgPbVsXHx
— AIR COMPANY (@AirCoNYC) February 28, 2023
This agreement comes after Air Company CEO Gregory Constantine told Axios that the fuel had already been tested. According to the CEO, a test flight had been conducted last year with a jet fueled solely by sustainable aviation fuel (or SAF) that had not been blended with another fuel source.
The novelty of the contract is not the fuel itself, but rather the agreement that will allow Air Company to test if it will be able to produce this fuel in remote locations or, to research, with accuracy, the amount in gallons that the company could produce of this fuel.
How does Air Company manufacture this fuel?
The manufacturing process of this sustainable fuel is explained in detail on the specialized web site Tech Crunch. According to Air Company, which is also an expert in converting carbon dioxide into perfume, vodka and even hand sanitizer, the idea is to capture CO2 from industrial fermentation facilities and convert it into SAF.
However, the company won't be carrying out this CO2 process, but rather facilitating direct air capture, which is "part of the technology that Air Company would be building out on site," a company spokesperson told Tech Crunch.
The goal is not for Air Company to supply fuel, but to provide the Air Force with the technology to manufacture the fuel itself. The company described the fuel production at the air bases themselves as "harm reduction," saying it prevents "fuel transportation as a target for explosives."
Through this process, the Air Force will become more environmentally friendly as it will use a completely sustainable fuel instead of the other fuel source it has been using since 2008, which, although sustainable, had to be mixed with traditional fossil fuels.
