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Text | Xue Xiaowan

Editor | Su Jianxun

36Carbon learned that Green Carbon Synthetic Energy (Shaoxing) Co., Ltd. has recently completed an angel round of financing of tens of millions of yuan. This round was exclusively invested by Linear Capital and Yundao Capital served as the exclusive financial advisor. This round of funds will be mainly used to build the pilot verification project of the smallest mass production unit and supplement the team.

Green Carbon Synthesis was established in July 2023 and is a process developer for the production of green fuels and chemical raw materials such as green aviation fuel and naphtha. 36 Carbon learned thatThe company has independently developed a new generation of Fischer-Tropsch synthesis technology for producing green energy. Its products mainly include Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF), biodiesel, bio-naphtha, as well as other products such as high value-added Fischer-Tropsch products.

Image provided by the company

With the formal adoption of the EU ReFuelEU aviation regulations last year, SAF has received widespread attention around the world. According to the EU policy requirements, the minimum blending ratio of SAF is 2% in 2025, 6% in 2030, 20% in 2035, and 70% in 2050.

At the same time, domestic policies are also encouraging the development of green aviation fuel to replace traditional aviation fuel. For example, the "Carbon Peak Action Plan before 2030" clearly proposes to vigorously promote advanced bio-liquid fuels, sustainable aviation fuels and other alternatives to traditional fuels to improve the energy efficiency of terminal fuel products.

Driven by strong domestic and foreign policies, major airlines around the world have successively put forward clear SAF usage targets. Based on the trillion-level market of traditional jet fuel, SAF will usher in a market demand scale of hundreds of billions of dollars - this also brings new opportunities and challenges to the production and supply of SAF. At present, SAF production includes multiple technical routes such as HEFA, Fischer-Tropsch synthesis, alcohol injection synthesis, and electro-to-liquid conversion.

Xiao Lifeng, founder of Green Carbon Synthesis, said that the company independently developed an advanced Fischer-Tropsch process.The third generation of Fischer-Tropsch optimizes the catalyst and process path based on the traditional Fischer-Tropsch:On the one hand, it improves the utilization efficiency and life of the catalyst, making it more compatible with the current green aviation fuel production needs; on the other hand, it enables the equipment to be miniaturized and have a lower cost, making it more adaptable to the characteristics of the biomass market.

From the perspective of the front-end links, the sources of raw materials are diverse.Biomass (mainly straw), livestock waste, urban solid waste, etc. can all become raw materials for green carbon synthesis to produce SAF.After the previous process such as biomass and solid waste gasification, after the appropriate gas composition adjustment, the appropriate proportion of synthesis gas can be formed, and finally SAF is generated through the Fischer-Tropsch synthesis process. Xiao Lifeng introduced that the previous generation of Fischer-Tropsch catalytic process has been verified in a commercial plant overseas. In comparison, the performance and cost of the new generation of Fischer-Tropsch process are more advantageous.

When talking about the choice of technology route, Xiao Lifeng said that the choice of Fischer-Tropsch synthesis was the result of comprehensive consideration of the upstream and downstream of the industrial chain. In particular, the cost of the front-end process is controllable. At present, it has cooperated with many domestic front-end production process manufacturers. For example, through mature gasification technology, it has achieved a good match with the Fischer-Tropsch process. More importantly,Through the technical path of green carbon synthetic energy, the volume of raw material sources is sufficient to meet the needs of SAF production, and can even further meet the demand for green diesel and other green chemical raw materials.

In terms of business model, Xiao Lifeng revealed to 36Carbon that green carbon synthesis will be explored commercially in stages. In the early stage, the company mainly cooperates with upstream raw material giants to produce green aviation fuel that meets domestic and international certification requirements. The focus of the next stage is to promote mass production, build demonstration projects, further promote commercial sales cooperation of SAF products and technical process packages, and enter overseas markets through overall skid-mounted equipment.

Investor’s view:

Zeng Yingzhe, partner of Linear Capital: Since it is difficult for large aircraft to reduce carbon emissions through electrification and hydrogen energy in a short period of time, sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) has become the most core means to solve the carbon emission problem in the aviation industry. Therefore, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) has clearly added regulations on it. The HEFA route based on waste oil is currently the mainstream production method of SAF, but the supply of waste oil is limited and the cost is rising. It will not be able to meet the supply demand of SAF in the future, and the market urgently needs new production methods.

The Green Carbon synthesis team has long been focused on the development of cutting-edge Fischer-Tropsch catalytic systems, taking into account characterization, catalyst screening and optimization, reactor structure design and other capabilities. It has developed a new cobalt-based catalytic process package and obtained very good test results, which is expected to significantly reduce the cost of SAF based on the biomass gasification Fischer-Tropsch route. We look forward to seeing Green Carbon and the industry working hand in hand to become the most mainstream production route.

Cao Jishan, founding partner of Yundao Capital: Yundao Capital has long been paying attention to green energy opportunities. Sustainable aviation fuel is a rare and systematic high-ceiling incremental opportunity in the energy field. The HEFA method for waste oil and fat is the most mature, but there is an obvious bottleneck in cost reduction. We are firmly optimistic about the structural cost reduction opportunities brought by the core capabilities of technology and engineering in the sustainable aviation fuel track. Yundao Capital wishes the Green Carbon Synthesis team to contribute greater value in the global green energy development wave.