86. Staff Sheehan on Greening the Aviation Fuel Industry

Purpose and Profit with Kathy Varol

Dr. Stafford (Staff) Sheehan is an American scientist, inventor, and entrepreneur at the forefront of the carbon capture and utilization industry. Staff is the Co-founder and CTO of AIR COMPANY, a business converting captured carbon dioxide, water, and electricity into the fuels and chemicals that we get from fossil fuels today. He is the inventor of AIR COMPANY’s core patents and is responsible for the technology and operations of the business. Prior to founding AIR COMPANY, Dr. Sheehan served as the co-founder and CEO of Catalytic Innovations, where he developed electrochemical technologies to reduce energy consumption in refining processes.

Staff was recognized on MIT Technology Review’s Innovators Under 35 in 2023, as one of Chemical & Engineering News Talented 12 in 2017, and a Forbes 30 under 30 in 2016. He received his BS in Chemistry from Boston College and his PhD in Physical Chemistry from Yale University.

In this episode, we discuss:

● Carbon capture and carbon utilization

● The process to create sustainable aviation fuel

● The magic of chemistry

Key Takeaways:

● Circular Economy in Fuel Production: AIR COMPANY is transforming captured carbon from the atmosphere into fuel, creating a circular economy in the fuel industry. When this fuel is burned, the carbon released can be captured again to make more fuel. This closed-loop system is an incredible leap forward in sustainable energy.

● Cutting Costs and Emissions Globally: The ability to create fuel anywhere in the world means we can slash energy use and costs across the supply chain. By producing fuel locally, we eliminate the need for transportation, drastically reducing associated energy use, costs, and emissions. This innovation could revolutionize how we think about energy logistics and help eliminate global conflict over fuel.

● Turning Thin Air into Valuable Resources: Chemistry often feels like magic, and AIR COMPANY's work with carbon capture and utilization truly embodies this. Their work gives the phrase "making something out of thin air" a whole new—literal—meaning as they convert atmospheric carbon into new products like - aviation fuel, perfume, and vodka.

References:

● Connect with Staff on LinkedIn

● Air Company

● To learn more about renewable hydrogen listen to the Purpose and Profit episode with David Reynolds, then Chief Executive of the Department for Trade and Investment for South Australia.

● Defense Innovation Unit

● “$400 per gallon gas to drive debate over cost of war in Afghanistan”, by Roxana Tiron, The Hill, October 16th, 2009

● NASA CO2 Conversion Challenge

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