According to an SEC filing, Aether Fuels raised $30.4 million of a $34.3 million funding round.
The e-fuels startup works to use carbon dioxide and other waste carbon streams to produce fuel for aviation and maritime shipping. This new funding round will add significantly to the company’s bank account. Aether Fuels already raised $8.5 million via convertible notes in late 2023.
The startup was spun out of Xora Innovation, an early-stage deep tech incubator run by Temasek. A company spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Since then, Aether Fuels has been working to improve its technology, which the company says can use carbon from a variety of waste materials, including industrial pollution, methane from landfills, and plant debris from farms.
Not much has been released about exactly how Aether Fuels converts carbon dioxide into fuel, but a patent application filed in January suggests the company is exploring a way to use natural gas. The process would involve gasifying solid waste, mixing it with natural gas, and converting the mixture into liquid fuel (while capturing the carbon dioxide that’s wasted in the process).
The company announced an agreement in February that would give it access to a gas-to-liquids program launched by natural gas nonprofit GTI Energy.
Airlines and shipping companies have been working to develop bio-based sustainable aviation fuels (SAF) and e-fuels as a way to decarbonize energy-intensive industries. But these efforts are still in their infancy. For example, the amount of SAF currently produced represents less than 0.1% of total usage, and SAF is a much more mature industry than e-fuels.
