Lydian can make aviation fuel wherever there is carbon dioxide and electricity
Jet Fuel is a modern wonder, allowing commercial airliners to carry hundreds of passengers halfway around the world and military aircraft to regularly break the speed of sound.
However, jet fuel as we know it may be on the chopping block as the world seeks to eliminate greenhouse gas emissions. Commercial aviation is responsible for 2.5% of all carbon pollution, a share that is likely to grow with Electrify Industries, a non-viable option for long-haul flights.
But if jet fuel can be made from carbon dioxide, it may get a stay in the pipeline.
A few startups have been racing to develop a cheap and efficient way to use electricity to convert CO2 Its an energy-dense hydrocarbon that can slip into an aircraft’s fuel tanks without anyone noticing the difference. But replacing inexpensive fossil fuels is a tall hurdle, which many companies have failed to overcome.
But one startup believes it has cracked the problem with a fairly straightforward approach. “We’re not necessarily trying to reinvent chemistry,” Joe Rhoden, co-founder and CEO of Lydianhe told TechCrunch. “We are trying to make the plant and equipment much cheaper and also operate flexibly.”
The first half of that equation—cheaper equipment—has a clear impact on the final cost of Lydian e-fuel. The second is more precise, taking advantage of a range of renewable energy: sometimes, it gets really cheap.
Lydian takes advantage of those low, low prices by using a highly efficient catalyst for CO conversion2 Hydrogen in jet fuel and oxygen. This allows the company to make the most of limited network offerings. “You can cut your energy cost by up to half by shaving just 20% or 30% of your usage rate,” Rodden said.
To an experienced plant operator, operating equipment part-time may not seem like the most profitable approach. Industrial plants like Lydian are typically run 24/7 in an effort to squeeze the most product out of expensive equipment.
“The chemical process industry has been very good at optimizing those plants in the context of 24/7 operations,” Rodden said. “But when you break that assumption, you start to make some different conclusions, like this component doesn’t make sense. Can we get rid of it?”
Rodden said that because Lydian’s reactors are part-time, his company has been able to eliminate a number of complex parts that add to materials and manufacturing costs.
As a result, Lydian can produce e-fuels competing with biofuels when electricity prices range from 3 to 4 cents per kilowatt-hour, which is typical for some solar and wind farms. If energy prices become cheaper than that, Which they can He added that by the end of the decade, they may be able to compete with fossil fuels.
Just how competitive it is depends on which market Lydian ends up selling. Europe, for example, is formation The amount airlines generate pollution, which promises to increase demand for biofuels and electronic entry, even if they are more expensive than traditional jet fuel. Elsewhere, smaller airports that must pay handsomely for jet fuel deliveries may choose to install some Lydian reactors and make their own.
But Lydian also looks beyond commercial aviation. The US Army is the world The largest single user of fossil fuels, and jet fuel makes up a large portion of that. At bases within the United States, securing supplies is not a major problem. But at forward bases in conflict zones, fuel must be shipped, creating an expensive and long supply chain vulnerable to enemy attack. About 3,000 American soldiers were in Iraq and Afghanistan Killed or injured During the delivery of water and fuel between 2003 and 2007.
“This is an application where the willingness to pay can be almost unlimited,” Rodden said.
Instead of long supply chains, Roden envisions Lydian reactors generating fuel where the base needs it, powered by solar, wind or nuclear power. The startup received a DARPA award for further development of the technology.
Recently, Lydian concluded a pilot plant in North Carolina that could produce up to 25 gallons of e-fuel per day. That may not seem like a lot when you consider that a Boeing 737-800 at cruising altitude burns out every minute and a half. But Rodden said it’s 100 times more than the company produces in the lab and more than 10,000 times more than it was producing two and a half years ago. Lydian will operate the pilot for a few years, collecting data, with construction of a commercial-scale plant that it hopes to finish in 2027.
If Lydian can maintain this kind of momentum, and the world can reduce its use of fossil fuels, the cyber suit may be the last place for hydrocarbons.
