Oxylus Energy strikes 'beautiful balance' to make e-fuels for aviation and shipping

Many airlines and shipping companies say they’ll hit net zero carbon emissions by 2050, but right now they have no clear path toward hitting that target.

From a scientific perspective, ridding those industries of fossil fuels is possible; economically, it’s not. Or at least not yet, claims a young startup. Oxylus Energy thinks it has the key to one part of the equation.

The company was spun out of a Yale chemistry lab last year, and it has been working to refine the production of so-called green methanol. Today, most methanol is derived from fossil fuels and used to make petrochemicals, though it can also be used as a transportation fuel. Because of that flexibility, green methanol, which is made without fossil fuels, could rid carbon pollution from a range of industries.

“We think it’s one of the most versatile chemicals that can really decarbonize the hard-to-abate sectors of shipping, aviation and petrochemicals that are responsible for 11% of emissions right now,” co-founder and COO Harrison Meyer told TechCrunch.

While EVs have made inroads into consumer transportation and trucking, flying and heavy shipping are utterly dependent on energy-dense fossil fuels to make long-distance journeys. Batteries are too heavy, and switching everything over to green hydrogen would require costly retrofits of airplanes and ships.

Motorsports fans will note that methanol has been used as a race fuel for decades, and many of today's internal combustion engines can burn the stuff with only minor modifications. Some ocean-going ships have also made the switch, and while a barrel of methanol doesn’t hold as much energy as other maritime fuels like diesel, it’s close enough that the industry is giving it serious consideration.

The hurdle for airlines is a bit higher because they would need green methanol refined into something that more closely resembles today’s jet fuel, which would raise the price.

But the CO₂ savings only pencil out if the methanol itself is made in a low-carbon fashion. That's where Oxylus comes in.

Making green methanol is expensive today because making it is a multi-part process, and each energy-intensive step is carried out using costly equipment. Just one of those steps, sourcing green hydrogen, represents about 16% of the total cost, according to Lux Research.

Oxylus Energy’s technology bypasses the need for green hydrogen by using a cobalt-based catalyst to facilitate the chemical reaction needed to produce methanol. The catalyst sits inside an electrolyzer, which uses electricity to split water and carbon dioxide molecules. Once the hydrogen, oxygen and carbon atoms are separate, they combine to form methanol (CH₃OH) and oxygen (O₂). All of this happens at standard room temperature and pressure, helping to keep costs down.

“As is the case in CO₂ electrolysis, you’re always fighting making hydrogen,” CTO Conor Rooney said. If too many hydrogen atoms combine into hydrogen molecules (H₂), then there aren’t enough left over to produce methanol. The chemical structure of Oxylus’ catalyst helps steer the reaction in the right direction, allowing methanol to form after hydrogen is liberated from water. “You need to have this beautiful balance,” Rooney said.

The methanol Oxylus produces can be used by the chemical industry to make a range of widely used chemicals, including formaldehyde and acetic acid. With some additional processing and refining, it can be turned into sustainable aviation fuel.

The startup exclusively told TechCrunch that it recently raised a $4.5 million seed round led by Toyota Ventures and Azolla Ventures with participation from Earth Foundry and Connecticut Innovations. The funding will go toward building a production-scale reactor which the company hopes will help prove its aggressive price targets.

“At renewable energy prices that you can contract at today, we’ll be at or below cost parity with fossil methanol,” CEO Perry Bakas said. “The core question is, can we build a system in the next few years? That’s really a time and money problem, which is what we’re really focusing on.”