The venture capital units of oil firms Aramco and ENI, as well as US carrier United Airlines invested $22.7 million in a British startup earlier this month.
The startup, called OXCCU and founded in 2021, is looking to lower the cost of low carbon aviation fuel to make it a more attractive option for airlines to buy instead of fossil fuels. Oxford University-affiliated scientists working with the company are doing this by fusing carbon dioxide (CO2) and hydrogen together to make sustainable fuel that can eventually be mass-produced.
The company’s developing different processes to help manufacture chemicals and plastics, as well as shipping fuel, in a more sustainable way.
The investment is helping the startup make new catalysts, demonstration plants and reactors to turn CO2 into fuel on a mass scale, the company’s CEO Andrew Symes told Al-Monitor in an interview. One of the plants will be at Oxford Airport in the United Kingdom, close to a potential airline customer base.
