United Invests In Heirloom For Sustainable Aviation Fuel

United Airlines made a major step towards its commitment to net-zero emissions by 2050 with a new investment in Heirloom, a Direct Air Capture (DAC) firm that specializes in carbon dioxide removal. The investment, which is made by the airline's United Airlines Ventures (UAV) Sustainable Flight Fund, involves an option to allow United to buy as much as 500,000 tons of carbon dioxide removal. The CO2 will then be utilized in making sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), complementing the airline's efforts toward decarbonizing aviation.

The UAV Sustainable Flight Fund, initiated in 2023, is a strategic plan focused on ramping up development and production of SAF. With over $200 million in commitment from United and corporate investors–including aviation industry leaders such as Embraer, GE Aerospace, and Google–the fund targets investing in startups involved in SAF research, technology, and manufacturing. Through the development of sustainable fuel sources, the project aims to mitigate one of aviation's largest hurdles: lowering greenhouse gas emissions without the use of conventional carbon offsets.

United's investment in Heirloom is its third carbon capture deal and its first in the DAC industry. The IEA has identified DAC technology as a key solution to developing a net-zero energy system. The process works by capturing CO2 directly from the air, which can either be utilized as a raw material or sequestered underground in a permanent way. This approach is unique as a scalable and commercially feasible carbon removal solution that fits United's decarbonization strategy.

Andrew Chang, the CEO of United Airlines Ventures, stressed the role that carbon capture would play in supporting sustainable energy transformation. He indicated that UAV has one of its main goals to find commercially viable decarbonization solutions. Heirloom's DAC technology, Chang explained, not only assists United's net-zero aspiration but also presents an affordable and scalable method for the removal of carbon, thus serving as a strategic solution to meet the airline's sustainability strategy.

Established in 2020 in California, Heirloom created a revolutionary DAC process that harnesses limestone, the second most prevalent mineral in the world, as a natural method of trapping CO2. The process starts by removing CO2 from the limestone and incorporating water to make a material that quickly absorbs further carbon dioxide in the air. When the CO2 is saturated, it is removed from the limestone material in a kiln fired by renewable energy and then sequestered underground. Heirloom claims this method can be one of the most cost-effective methods to sequester carbon out of the air.

The United investment arrives at a pivotal time for Heirloom, which has been building quickly. In December of 2023, the firm reported it had raised $150 million in Series B funding to continue building out its DAC technology. Heirloom has also led the charge on the commercial deployment of DAC, opening North America's first commercial DAC facility last year in Tracy, California. In addition, the company is also a leader in the creation of Project Cypress, a Direct Air Capture Hub in Louisiana with support from the U.S. Department of Energy.

Shashank Samala, Heirloom CEO, was also thrilled with the partnership with United, saying that DAC is a two-for-one tool: it can substantially reduce aviation fuel's carbon footprint while eliminating the remaining CO2 emissions from the air. He emphasized that this partnership is a significant milestone towards building a genuinely net-zero aviation business, making DAC a game-changing solution against climate change.

United's sustainability commitment goes beyond this investment. The carrier has committed to the ambitious goal of entirely eliminating its greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, making it different from other large carriers by promising not to be dependent on conventional carbon offset schemes. Rather, United is concentrating on technological improvement, alternative sustainable fuels, and strategic investments in breakthrough climate solutions such as DAC.

The carrier's investment in Heirloom is a demonstration of its faith in the future of carbon capture technologies to transform the aviation industry. Through the use of DAC for the production of sustainable fuel, United is tackling one of the most daunting areas of decarbonization: discovering feasible means of lowering emissions from jet fuel, which continues to be a significant source of aviation-related carbon emissions.

As the aviation sector is under mounting pressure to become more sustainable in its operations, investments such as this one underscore the escalating contributions of corporate collaboration toward the development of carbon removal technologies. With its investment in Heirloom, United is not just strengthening its leadership in sustainability but also catalyzing the wider deployment of DAC as an essential solution for lowering levels of atmospheric CO2.

In the future, the success of this effort has the potential to open doors for other advancements in carbon capture and sustainable aviation fuel production. If DAC technology can be made scalable, it could become the backbone of the aviation industry's long-term strategy for decarbonization, assisting in the development of a cleaner, more sustainable air travel future.