Berkeley firm partners with Alaska Airlines, Microsoft to develop low-carbon SAF

Berkeley-based chemical technology company, Twelve announced a collaboration with Alaska Airlines and Microsoft to advance production and use of Twelve’s E-jet, a lower-carbon jet fuel.

“Our process takes CO2, water and electricity as inputs. We use the electricity to break apart CO2 and water, and then we have catalysts that recombine the elements to make new products. And one of the things that we can make is the building blocks for jet fuel,” said co-founder and CEO Nicholas Flanders.

Flanders told CNBC that the process is cheaper than the existing (sustainable aviation fuel) SAF production.

“The cost of renewable electricity has been falling over the last decade, so has the cost of CO2 capture, and so has the cost of electrolyzers, which is the technology that we use to transform CO2 and water into the building blocks for jet fuel,” he said.