Aircela creates synthetic gasoline from thin air

LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- California has a plan in place to phase out the sale of new gasoline-powered vehicles by 2035 in an effort to protect the environment. But will the infrastructure be in place to support only zero-emission vehicles in 10 years?

"We have a century worth of experience and money invested into moving us around, heating, cooling and that is based in large part on fuel, so I think it's a faster pathway to clean up that fuel rather than ripping up the entire infrastructure," said Eric Dahlgren, the CEO of Aircela Inc.

New York based Aircela uses what's called "direct air capture technology" to create fuel out of thin air. Developed over the last five years, the Aircela system uses proven science to make synthetic gas from the air around us in a machine small enough for at-home use and at a cost that's competitive with traditional fossil fuel.

"The future of mobility, transportation, climate tech is going to be a mosaic of different inventions and aspects and solutions so we see us as one part of it," said Mia Dahlgren, the COO of Aircela Inc.

Very broadly, here's how the system works. Ambient air is pulled into Aircela's machine where the carbon is captured. Water is added and the hydrogen atoms are separated using renewable electricity. The carbon and hydrogen are then bonded in the presence of a catalyst to create methanol. Fuel for your car that doesn't add any carbon to the environment.

"Whatever emissions, particularly carbon emissions that come out of this, are the exact same amounts that we pull in in the beginning. So there are no, net new, carbon additions to the atmosphere provided that we power it with renewable low carbon electricity to begin with," Eric explained.

Data from lab tests shows the fuel created is drop-in ready to use motor grade gasoline. Aircela's plan over the next 18 months is to manufacture enough machines to demonstrate the technology works in every environment and by using carbon directly from the atmosphere, in theory, you have an unlimited supply of fuel.

"That is the differentiator between many of the companies out there that want to make fuel from cooking oil or biomass or agricultural waste - all well worthy endeavors - but if you scale those up, you find yourself potentially competing with food supplies and that is not something that we want to do," Eric said.

Mia added: "People really want to do good, but the action intention gap is quite large. People haven't really figured out a way that works for them and we hope to be able to provide one solution."

Aircela does not intend to make the machines any larger so they can make more fuel, but they do believe hundreds of the machines could be placed in open space, much like a solar farm and generate thousands of gallons of fuel every day to be sold commercially.