Air Company Holdings, Inc. — National Aeronautics and Space Administration STTR Phase I: T7

Description

Air Company has developed carbon dioxide hydrogenation technology that produces paraffins (C8-C16 and higher) in a single step using only carbon dioxide and hydrogen gases as feedstock. The hydrogen gas is sourced using renewably powered water electrolysis, thus the only byproduct of the process is the oxygen that is coproduced from the electrolyzer. Coupling this system with direct air capture technology, for which we have a patent pending on a synthetic carbonic anhydrase analognbsp;to increase sorption efficacy, enables production of kerosene-based fuels using only air, water, and renewable electricity. Air Company has demonstrated this process at the pilot scale, producing a metric ton of products per week and operating for over 8,600 operating hours in 2021. In this proposal, we plan to use our existing data and expertise, as well as collect new experimental data, to construct the process models and provide NASA with mass and energy balance information, system energy consumption, mass, and volume, sensitivity to varied carbon dioxide feedstocks for applications on Earth and Mars, detailed descriptions of each subcomponentnbsp;of the process, and a thorough risk analysis for deployment on Earth and Mars. Together with Modestino Lab at New York University, we will further provide detailed engineering models, materials sizing, and kinetic modeling for the key components of the system, specifically the carbon dioxide hydrogenation reactor. At the end of this STTR project, the technical feasibility of deploying this technology on Earth and Mars will be thoroughly assessed and delivered to NASA.