Dive Brief:
- Breakthrough Energy Catalyst, a subsidiary of the Bill Gates-backed Breakthrough Energy Ventures, announced last week it was committing a $75 million equity investment to support Project Roadrunner, a sustainable fuel initiative led by e-fuels company, Infinium.
- Project Roadrunner aims to convert waste carbon dioxide and renewable power into sustainable aviation fuel and other low-carbon fuels. Infinium said the commercial-scale e-fuels facility is expected to be the largest power-to-liquids project in North America, once operational.
- The sustainability initiative, also publicized during COP28’s Climate Innovation Forum, includes a partnership with American Airlines, anchored in an offtake agreement for Infinium’s SAF and clean energy technologies. The project will also receive financial support from Citibank, a partner of Breakthrough Energy Catalyst.
Dive Insight:
Project Roadrunner is based in West Texas and aims to convert an existing brownfield gas-to-liquids project into a fully integrated e-fuels facility to manufacture products for U.S. and international markets, according to a company press release.
Infinium said the project will primarily focus on producing Infinium eSAF: a sustainable aviation fuel with the potential to significantly reduce the lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions associated with air travel. The company also said power-to-liquids SAF is expected to reduce flight emissions by around 90%, which is higher than the emissions reductions attained using regular SAF available on the market today.
Project Roadrunner will also produce “eNaphtha” to be utilized in plastics manufacturing and “eDiesel” to be used in transportation methods such as long-haul trucking and maritime applications, which are harder to electrify.
“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,” Mario Fernandez, head of Breakthrough Energy Catalyst, said in the release.
American Airlines’ collaboration with the project aims to accelerate the development of future clean energy technologies, including SAF. The airline said its offtake agreement with Infinium seeks to serve as a “model for how airlines can use offtake agreements to help promising new SAF technologies attract investment dollars.”
To further support the offtake agreement, the airline separately partnered with Citi to back the scaling of Infinium’s new technology and also help reduce a portion of the financial institution’s own scope 3 emissions generated from employee travel.
“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 decarbonize,” American Airlines’ Chief Sustainability Officer Jill Blickstein said.
This isn’t the first time the Fort Worth-based airline has collaborated with Gates’ sustainable energy and innovation firm. The airline signed a purchase agreement with carbon removal startup Graphyte — another subsidiary of Breakthrough Energy Ventures — last month to reduce its carbon footprint and work toward its goal of reaching net-zero emissions by 2050.
“Bringing down the green premium is key for the widespread adoption of climate technologies,” Gates said when discussing opportunities to scale and finance climate solutions at the climate innovation forum last week.
