• LanzaTech, a carbon capture and biofuel startup, has partnered with Carbon Engineering, a Canadian direct air capture (DAC) startup, to produce sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) using atmospheric carbon dioxide. Other project partners include British Airways and Virgin Atlantic. 

• Project AtmosFUEL will investigate the feasibility of a commercial air-to-jet facility in the UK to produce more than 100 million liters of SAF per year. The project is one of eight shortlisted for government funding under the UK Department of Transport’s “Green Fuels, Green Skies” competition. 

• Carbon Engineering’s direct air capture (DAC) technology will capture atmospheric carbon dioxide fed into LanzaTech’s gas fermentation process to produce ethanol. This low-carbon ethanol will be transformed into SAF using LanzaJet Alcohol-To-Jet (ATJ) technology. Partners claim that SAF will result in more than a 90% reduction in carbon emissions compared to conventional jet fuel. 

• Founded in 2005, LanzaTech has developed the technology to capture carbon dioxide emissions from industrial applications and ferment them using bacteria to produce ethanol, which can be used in industrial chemicals and biofuel production. Founded in 2009, Carbon Engineering specializes in DAC technology. The company’s first commercial DAC facility in Texas is expected to be completed by 2024.

<ul><li> Analyst QuickTake: ATJ technology used in Project AtmosFUEL is developed by LanzaJet, a LanzaTech spin-off announced in June 2020 to produce SAF using low-carbon ethanol. This includes some of its own fermented ethanol as well as low-carbon ethanol from outside suppliers. In June 2021, LanzaJet announced the world's first commercial-scale ATJ production facility in South Wales and mentioned that the company expects to develop multiple follow-up projects in the UK and globally via a licensing model. The model would allow customers to build, own, and operate facilities that use LanzaJet’s technology.</ul>