Aether Fuels has raised $30.4 million from a $34.3 million round, according to an SEC filing.
The e-fuels startup is working on producing aviation and maritime fuel using carbon dioxide and other carbon waste streams. The new round would give the company's bank account a healthy boost; Aether fuels had previously raised $8.5 million through convertible notes at the end of 2023.
The startup emerged from Xora Innovation, an early-stage deep-tech incubator run by Temasek. A company spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Since then, Aether Fuels has worked to refine its technology. The company says its technology can use carbon from a range of waste streams, including industrial pollution, methane from landfills and leftover plant residue from farms.
Not much is publicly known about how exactly Aether Fuels converts carbon dioxide into fuels, although: patent application filed in January suggests the company is exploring an option using natural gas. The process gasifies solid waste, mixes it with natural gas, and then transforms the mixture into a liquid fuel (capturing any waste carbon dioxide).
It is in February announced a deal that gave it access to a gas-to-liquid program started by GTI Energy, a natural gas nonprofit.
Airlines and maritime shipping companies are pursuing bio-derived sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) and e-fuels as a way to decarbonize their energy-intensive industries. However, these efforts are still in their infancy at best. For example, the amount of SAF produced today is only less than 0.1% of total use, and SAF is a much more mature industry than e-fuels.
