The UAV Sustainable Flight Fund, the venture fund controlled by United NASDAQ:UAL, has made an investment in direct air capture (DAC) company Heirloom, adding Heirloom’s measurable, quantifiable carbon reduction technology to its already robust portfolio of decarbonization strategies.
The fund has also entered into an agreement for the right to purchase up to 500,000 tons of carbon dioxide removal (CDR) to be delivered for the production of sustainable aviation fuel or permanently stored underground.
Heirloom’s already-proven and scalable technology accelerates the natural power of limestone to capture CO2 directly from the air – making it potentially one of the lowest cost pathways for removing carbon dioxide.
“Carbon capture is one of our country’s fastest growing, energy enabling pathways,” said Andrew Chang, head of United Airlines Ventures. “At UAV, our primary focus is finding solutions for decarbonization that are profitable. Heirloom’s technology aligns directly with this objective, offering a scalable and commercially viable approach and complements United’s commitment to net zero by 2050.”
What is direct air capture?
Direct air capture is a nascent technique in which CO2 (and potentially other greenhouse gases) are removed directly from the atmosphere. The current technique uses large fans that move ambient air through a filter, using a chemical adsorbent to produce a pure CO2 stream that could be stored or re-used.
Significantly, unlike traditional carbon capture technologies, direct air capture removes CO2 from the atmosphere, rather than being attached to a power station or other source of emissions.
The UAV Sustainable Flight Fund is a first-of-its-kind investment vehicle designed to leverage support from cross-industry businesses in order to support start-ups focused on decarbonizing air travel. The fund is comprised of more than $200 million in investment commitments from United and its corporate partners. It is part of wider initiatives being made by the airline sector in order to reduce its carbon emissions.
“We are incredibly proud to welcome the United Sustainable Flight Fund as an investor and to work with them to scale our DAC technology,” said Shashank Samala, CEO of Heirloom. “By utilizing DAC as a dual-pronged tool that can both greatly reduce CO2 emission from aviation fuel and remove residual emissions, we are charting a true path to Net Zero aviation.”
Heirloom marks United’s third carbon capture investment but the first in a company commercializing direct air capture technology. DAC is one of two main forms of carbon capture utilization and storage, along with point source capture. Unlike point source capture which captures CO2 from a specific emitting source, like a power plant, DAC removes atmospheric CO2.
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How does the aviation sector plan to decarbonise?
The aviation industry’s net-zero carbon emissions target is focused on delivering maximum reduction in emissions at source, through the use of sustainable aviation fuels (SAF), innovative new propulsion technologies, and other efficiency improvements (such as improvements to air traffic navigation).
The airline industry plan for net-zero foresees a rapid decline in the use of offsets as in-sector solutions take over. If it proves impossible to completely eliminate emissions at source, however, the industry as a whole says it is committed to mitigating the remaining emissions using offsetting mechanisms, including carbon capture technologies.
Because of the very international nature of the aviation industry, it is less susceptible to the political agendas to even the largest and most powerful countries. International consensus on the part of the sector has historically always been harder for one country, regardless of size, to derail or alter, as larger airlines depend on access to international and sovereign air space in order to survive.
Offsetting has been criticized as poorly-regulated by the aviation sector specfically, with the quality of some schemes called into question.
