Oxylus Energy achieves ‘beautiful balance’ in producing e-fuels for aviation and shipping

Many airlines and shipping firms say they are going to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2050, but they don’t yet have a transparent path to attain this goal.

Scientifically, divesting these industries of fossil fuels is feasible; economically, it isn’t. Or no less than not yet, the young startup claims. Oxylus Energy believes he holds the important thing to 1 a part of the equation.

The company was spun out of Yale’s chemistry lab last 12 months and is working to perfect the production of so-called green methanol. Currently, most methanol comes from fossil fuels and is used to make petrochemicals, although it might probably even be used as a transportation fuel. Because of this flexibility, green methanol, which is made without fossil fuels, could free many industries from carbon pollution.

“We think this is one of the most versatile chemicals that can really decarbonize the hard-to-reduce sectors of shipping, aviation, and petrochemicals, which currently account for 11% of emissions,” co-founder and COO Harrison Meyer told TechCrunch.

While electric vehicles have entered consumer and heavy trucking, flying and heavy shipping are entirely depending on energy-hungry fossil fuels to make long-distance journeys. Batteries are too heavy, and switching every little thing to green hydrogen would require expensive retrofitting of planes and ships.

Motorsport fans will note that methanol has been used as a racing fuel for many years, and lots of today’s internal combustion engines can burn the substance with minor modifications. Some ocean-going vessels also I made a changeand while a barrel of methanol doesn’t contain as much energy as other marine fuels like diesel, it’s close enough that the industry is seriously considering its use.

Airlines face a rather greater hurdle because they need green methanol refined right into a form that more closely resembles today’s jet fuel, which might drive up the value.

But what₂ savings only come when the methanol itself is produced in a low-emission way. That’s where Oxylus comes in.

Green methanol production is pricey today since it is a multi-step process, and each energy-intensive step is carried out using expensive equipment. Just one in every of these steps, the extraction of green hydrogen, accounts for about 16% of the whole cost, in accordance with Lux Research.

Oxylus Energy’s technology bypasses the necessity for green hydrogen by utilizing a cobalt-based catalyst to facilitate the chemical response needed to supply methanol. The catalyst sits inside an electrolyzer, which uses electricity to separate water and carbon dioxide molecules. Once separated, the hydrogen, oxygen, and carbon atoms mix to form methanol (CH₃OH) and oxygen (O₂). All of this happens at standard room temperature and pressure, which helps keep costs low.

“As is the case in CO₂ electrolysis, you’re always fighting to produce hydrogen,” said CTO Conor Rooney. If too many hydrogen atoms mix to form hydrogen molecules (H₂), there’s not enough leftover to make methanol. The chemical structure of the Oxylus catalyst helps steer the response in the appropriate direction, allowing methanol to form when hydrogen is released from the water. “You have to have that beautiful balance,” Rooney said.

Methanol produced by Oxylus will be utilized by the chemical industry to supply a spread of common chemicals, including formaldehyde and acetic acid. With some additional processing and refining, it might probably be transformed right into a sustainable aviation fuel.

The startup told TechCrunch exclusively that it recently raised $4.5 million in a seed round led by Toyota Ventures and Azolla Ventures with participation from Earth Foundry and Connecticut Innovations. The funding will go toward constructing a production-scale reactor that the corporate hopes will help prove its aggressive pricing goals.

“At the renewable energy prices that are contractable today, we will be at or below cost parity with fossil methanol,” said CEO Perry Bakas. “The fundamental question is, can we build a system in the next few years? That’s really a time and money issue that we’re really focused on.”