American Airlines has expanded its decarbonisation activities, announcing new partnerships with two US-based start-ups – Infinium, an emerging producer of sustainable aviation fuels, and Graphyte, a carbon removal and storage company. Both new businesses are backed by Breakthrough Energy, the climate action investment group established by technology billionaire Bill Gates. American will be Graphyte’s first customer, purchasing 10,000 tons of carbon removal credits from early 2025. Through its Project Roadrunner initiative, Infinium plans commercial-scale production of power-to-liquid fuels, or eFuel, by collecting, combining and converting carbon dioxide and renewably-produced power. American has signed a “definitive” offtake agreement with Infinium, details of which were not disclosed.

Infinium’s Project Roadrunner will convert an existing brownfield gas-to-liquids project in West Texas into what the company claims will become North America’s largest eFuels facility, supplying both the US and international markets. The integrated plant will mainly produce eSAF, an aviation decarbonisation pathway which is projected to reduce lifecycle fuel emissions by about 90%. It will also manufacture eDiesel for use by the road freight and maritime sectors and eNaptha for plastics production. 

The American Airlines’ deal with Infinium, which the companies described as “a critical enabler of further investment in Project Roadrunner,” was announced alongside a $75 million investment in Infinium by Breakthrough Energy Catalyst, which supports first-of-a-kind projects that accelerate the use of climate technologies to cut harmful emissions and help to reduce the green premium. The Infinium deal, which is subject to “the satisfaction of certain closing conditions”, was Catalyst’s first equity investment.

American is a foundation partner of Breakthrough Energy Catalyst, seeking to help drive the development of new clean energy technologies including SAF. To further support the eSAF offtake deal, American and US-based banking group Citi – also a partner of Breakthrough Energy Catalyst – agreed to transfer the associated emission reductions to the bank to support scaling of Infinium’s eSAF programme, as well as helping to offset Scope 3 emissions of air travel by its employees.

“American joined Breakthrough Energy Catalyst because we saw the potential to accelerate the commercialisation of the clean energy technologies of the future,” said Jill Blickstein, the airline’s Chief Sustainability Officer. “Today we see the realisation of that potential in Catalyst’s investment in Infinium’s electrofuels SAF, coupled with American’s long-term commitment to purchase those fuels. Our partnership with Catalyst, and our new commitment with Infinium, exemplifies the novel collaboration necessary to bring to market the new technologies that will allow us to decarbonise.”

Robert Schuetzle, CEO of Infinium, said the Catalyst investment was critical to accelerating Project Roadrunner and the delivery of significant volumes of eFuels produced by combining CO2 and renewable power. “The groundbreaking commercial agreement with American is an important prototype for the aviation industry as its firm offtake agreement supports project financing, providing revenue certainty for the project,” he said.

Mario Fernandez, Head of Breakthrough Energy Catalyst, added: “This project is a landmark achievement for the development of sustainable aviation fuels. The offtake agreement provides a model for the entire aviation industry of one way to effect change and support the scale up of capital-intensive projects. Infinium’s technological and commercial maturity, coupled with the company’s project development expertise, will help accelerate the clean energy transition by quickly bringing to market clean fuels for aviation, trucking and other long-distance parts of the transportation sector.”

Val Smith, Citi’s Chief Sustainability Officer, said: “We hope the offtake agreement with American, where we combine their direct use of SAF with our indirect use through our business travel, will serve as one model for how offtake agreements can be used to help scale up future solutions for low-emissions air travel.”

American’s second partnership is with carbon removal company Graphyte, which instead of extracting CO2 directly from the air, plans to transform existing carbon-holding biomass by-products, including crop and forestry waste, which contain CO2 already captured from the air through the natural process of photosynthesis. Through its Carbon Casting process, Graphyte secures the biomass waste, then dries and converts it into solid carbon blocks, which are sealed, stored underground and monitored to ensure no carbon leakage. The company then sells carbon credits as offsets, with American Airlines to be its first customer, purchasing 10,000 tons of permanent carbon removal from early 2025.

Backed by Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Graphyte says its process is far less expensive than other carbon capture systems, which rely on large fans to extract CO2 from the atmosphere. Instead, says the company, “we returned to nature’s proven, efficient process for capturing carbon from the atmosphere – photosynthesis.”

The company dries the biomass, eliminating microbes and water which cause decomposition and enable captured carbon to escape. Carbon blocks are then created, sealed and permanently stored. The first commercial scale use of the technology will be at the company’s facility in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, though timing was not revealed.

“Carbon Casting lets nature efficiently do the work of capturing the CO2, then leverages engineering techniques to store it permanently,” explained Graphyte’s Founder and CEO Barclay Rogers. “This is a landmark agreement for both Graphyte and American Airlines. It demonstrates the growing demand for affordable and scalable high-quality carbon removal credits and the ability of Carbon Casting technology to make a significant impact in the fight against climate change in the very near term.”

The partnership fits American’s strategy of diversifying decarbonisation technologies to maximise its carbon emission reductions.

“American is focused on accelerating new, low-carbon technologies to reduce aviation’s climate impact,” explained Blickstein. “Hard-to-abate industries like aviation will need high-quality, permanent, affordable and scalable carbon credits, including removals, to achieve our emissions reduction goals. We are excited to work with Graphyte to help them scale their important new technology.” 

Photo: American Airlines

Tony Harrington

Correspondent

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