This company wants to make air travel sustainable

In 2019, Air Company made a splash when it launched vodka derived from recaptured carbon, in an effort to reduce the amount of the harmful greenhouse gas in the atmosphere. Today, the Brooklyn-based startup has begun using the same process to make fuel for airplanes. Air Company’s sustainable aviation fuel, which was recently tested by the US Air Force, could ultimately help the airline industry hit its goal of net zero carbon emissions by 2050. Currently, the airline industry accounts for about 3% of total global carbon emissions each year, and mostly relies on traditional, fossil-based fuels that require various forms of environmental disruption to produce. Already, some of the world’s biggest airlines are signing on to Air Company’s vision. The company announced last month that Jet Blue and Virgin Atlantic, as well as startup aircraft company Boom Supersonic, have agreed to purchase millions of gallons of its fuel in the coming years. Jet Blue Ventures, the airline’s investment arm, also invested directly in Air Company’s $30 million Series A funding round earlier this year. “How we think about what the company does is trying to solve humanity’s toughest problems,” Gregory Constantine, co-founder and CEO of Air Company, told CNN in an interview last month. “For us, climate change is the greatest challenge that we’re facing as humanity to date … so if we can work on technologies that take what was once really thought of as a problem and turn it into a solution, then that’s a massive win.” A number of producers of sustainable aviation fuel have emerged in recent years, including a major Finnish producer called Neste, many of them using ingredients such as plant material and cooking oil. But Air Company’s production process starts by pulling harmful carbon emissions out of the air.<br/>