Prometheus Fuels
We turn renewable electricity & atmospheric CO2 into zero net carbon gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel.
Company details
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- Business Type:
- Technology
- Industry Type:
- Renewable Energy
- Market Focus:
- Nationally (across the country)
About Us
Prometheus Was Founded To Achieve An Audacious Goal - To Replace All Oil And Gas With Zero Net Carbon Fuels Made From C02 in The Air.
Ever Since, We've been asked two questions. Why now? and What makes us think we can do it?
Our Answer To The First Question Is As Simple As It Is Stark.
The Climate Crisis Is The Greatest Threat Humankind Has Ever Faced. No Less Than The Fate Of The Planet And All The Life It Supports Hang In The Balance. The Stakes Could Not Be Higher.
The pivotal moment that created Prometheus came in October of 201 8 after two landmark events. The first was when the United Nations' scientific panel on climate change released a dire report. In a list of scenes, it laid out, in graphic detail, the staggering destruction the world was all but certain to suffer in just a few short years. There was still time, the report said, to stop climate change and avoid the worst impacts. But only if the world took immediate, radical steps, not just to curb new emissions, but to remove C02 from the air.
Heeding this call, two weeks later, Y Combinator, the acclaimed Silicon Valley accelerator, put out a request: any founder with an idea for how to remove that C02 from the air should step forward. 'If s time to take big swings at this,' it said.
We knew we had to act. That winter, Prometheus was accepted to Y Combinator and launched on Demo Day the following March. Before a packed auditorium, Prometheus founder and CEO, Rob McGinnis explained how the company could pull C02 from the air and turn it into jet fuel, diesel, and gasoline that were atomically identical to their fossil counterparts. Not only would Prometheus's fuels be 100% carbon neutral, their production could be scaled in time to save the Earth.
Which Brings us to the Second Question - What make us think we can execute this bold
Our Answer Here Is Also Simple -We Know The Task Is Great. But The Technology Exists.
Engineers Have Known How To Make Synthetic Fuel From The Air For Nearly A Century, But Only Recently Has It Been Possible To Make Zero Net Carbon Synthetic Fuel At A Price That Can Compete With Fossil Fuels.
One development that unlocked this change was the tremendous drop in the price of electricity from solar and wind—over 90% in the last decade.
At Prometheus, we've developed a unique tech stack that combines integrated direct air capture of C02, cutting edge catalysts for conversion of C02 to fuels, and a novel membrane that eliminates the need for distillation. All of the tech in Prometheus's C02-to-fuels process is powered only by renewable electricity, which is why we call our zero net carbon fuel 'electric fuel.'
The only inputs to our process are air and renewable power. The only outputs are fuel and oxygen. There are no agricultural inputs and no waste products. And there is no limit to the scale at which C02 can be converted into fuels. It is possible to completely replace the global use of fossil oil and gas with our zero net carbon fuels. By doing this, we can lower annual C02 emissions by more than 20 gigatons per year, half of all emissions today. By using C02 to make carbon negative objects—or as we call them, 'banked-carbon goods'—we can remove historical C02 emissions, storing them in useful products forever. This is how we can solve the climate crisis.
MAYBE SCALING FASTER THAN ANY INDUSTRY HAS MOVED BEFORE.
WE HAVE A PLAN TO DO IT.
WE ALSO KNOW THAT IN ORDER TO SUCCEED, OUR FUELS CAN'T JUST BE AS GOOD AS FOSSIL FUELS, THEY HAVE TO BE BETTER. THATS WHY WE'VE DESIGNED THEM TO BE HIGH-PERFORMANCE AND CLEAN-BURNING. MOST IMPORTANTLY, OUR FUELS WILL COST THE SAME OR LESS THAN FOSSIL FUELS.
Given the magnitude of the crisis, there are some who think that the only way to respond is to fundamentally change who we are. To do and be less. We, at Prometheus, think this would be a terrible mistake. We believe we can meet this epic challenge not in spite of, but because of who we are.
The urge to discover what lies beyond that far horizon, or that ocean, or this planet, is part of what makes us human. We are explorers and adventurers. We search for inspiration, for what's new and what's next. And we yearn to live better, larger lives. Throughout human existence, this restless impulse has led our species to overcome near unfathomable hardships. And if s exactly this ability that we need now.
We shouldn't shrink the scope of human experience. Instead, our goal should be to break the historical link between energy and the dirty fossil fuels that are destroying our world. Instead, we should make energy and the things we do with it in a brand new way.
This is our mission at Prometheus. We are propelled by the future we imagine—one in which everyone who wants to can experience the joy of a road trip, the thrill of flight, and, one day soon, the humbling awe of viewing the Earth from orbit.