US green tech company Twelve has launched a commercial-scale carbon transformation unit to convert captured CO2 into products including sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), Bloomberg reported last week. The company plans to supply SAFs to airlines including Alaska Air Group, while generating carbon credits for customers including Microsoft and Shopify to help mitigate their business travel-related emissions.

Where does Twelve come in? Twelve leverages a PEM-based CO2 electrolyzer named Opus — about the size of a shipping container — to repurpose carbon dioxide and water via renewables-powered electrolysis into oxygen and synthetic gas. The company will combine hydropower and use CO2 captured from a nearby ethanol plant to turn CO2 and water into synthetic gas — the basis of SAF — at its planned SAF plant in Washington, with plans to later mix it with traditional jet fuel in order to meet the current 50/50 SAF blend requirements.

We’ve heard about this before: Honeywell International started using new technology to manufacture lower-carbon aviation fuel from green hydrogen and CO2 captured from industrial smokestacks last May. Honeywell said the new tech could help slash greenhouse gas emissions by 88% in comparison with conventional jet fuel at the time.

REMEMBER- This is perfect timing for this kind of tech: In a bid to decarbonize the industry,the EU agreed last year to set binding targets for the European aviation industry to boost its use of SAF. The proposal aims to increase the use of SAF by ensuring fuel suppliers have 2% of the fuel accessible at EU airports as SAF in 2025, rising to 6% in 2030, 20% in 2035 and 70% in 2050. The EU carbon market is set to provide about EUR 2 bn to help airlines switch to SAF. Some 1.2% of fuels must also be synthetic fuels from 2030, rising to 35% in 2050.

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