United Airlines Makes Second Investment In Carbon Capture

Svante

Svante’s technology uses absorbent filters to capture CO2 for concentration or sequestration.

Credit: Svante

United Airlines has invested in Canadian carbon capture technology startup Svante. 

Part of Vancouver, British Columbia-based Svante’s Series E funding round, the $5 million investment comes from United Airlines Ventures’ $100 million-plus Sustainable Flight Fund, which is also backed by GE Aerospace, Honeywell and others.

Svante’s carbon capture and removal technology uses structured absorbent beds, called filters, to capture CO2 emissions from industrial sites and from the atmosphere. The captured CO2 is then concentrated and can be used to produce sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) or sequestered underground. The Series E funding will support Svante’s commercial-scale filter manufacturing plant in Vancouver.

Svante is working with Ithaca, New York-based Dimensional Energy, a carbon utilization startup that plans to convert captured CO2 and hydrogen electrolyzed from water into syngas feedstock for the Fischer-Tropsch process to produce SAF. United Airlines Ventures (UAV) invested in Dimensional Energy in June 2022 and the airline also signed a commercial agreement to purchase at least 300 million gal. of SAF over 20 years from the company. Dimensional Energy’s first demonstration plant is operational in Tucson, Arizona, producing liquid fuel using solar power.

In December 2020, United made a multimillion-dollar investment in 1PointFive, a partnership involving Occidental Petroleum Corp subsidiary Oxy Low Carbon Ventures that plans to build the first U.S. industrial-sized direct air capture plant that would permanently sequester 1 million tons of CO2 each year. The startup already has three projects underway in Louisiana and Texas.

Graham Warwick

Graham leads Aviation Week's coverage of technology, focusing on engineering and technology across the aerospace industry, with a special focus on identifying technologies of strategic importance to aviation, aerospace and defense.