Sacramento clean fuel technology company Infinium has struck an agreement with Amazon for the e-commerce giant to use the company’s ultra-low-carbon fuels for some truck transportation in Southern California starting as early as next year.
Seattle-based Amazon.com Inc. (Nasdaq: AMZN) is also an investor in Infinium, having participated in at least two funding rounds for the company.
This announcement represents the first large-scale electrofuel available to the market globally, Infinium CEO Robert Schuetzle told the Business Journal.
Infinium will use 100% renewable-sourced electricity along with waste carbon dioxide to make its electrofuel in Texas for the Southern California market.
Infinium is commercializing a process that uses renewable electricity to release hydrogen from water. Infinium then mixes the hydrogen with waste carbon dioxide to make synthetic diesel. The fuel made in the company's process can be used as a drop-in replacement for diesel fuel in existing trucks and ships, as well as for jet fuel.
Amazon will use the fuel for its middle tier-transportation in Southern California. Middle tier is large truck traffic between vendors and Amazon and from Amazon to other Amazon locations. It will not be used by final delivery vehicles, Schuetzle said.
The Texas plant is already under construction, he said.
Schuetzle declined to disclose the cost, size, location or capacity of the new plant. Over the past year, Infinium has signed agreements to develop electrofuel plants in France, Japan and Brazoria County, Texas, which is south of Houston.
“This agreement with Infinium can help Amazon take important new steps to reduce carbon emissions from our transportation network and deliver packages to millions of customers more sustainably,” said Kara Hurst, vice president of Worldwide Sustainability at Amazon, in a news release. “We’re excited to begin using electrofuels in our middle mile fleet next year, which will also put us closer to our goal of net zero carbon by 2040.”
Infinium’s fuels can be used in jet transportation, but that is not part of this rollout, Schuetzle said.
In Texas, Infinium has access through partnerships to electricity and to waste carbon. Infinium and Amazon chose the California market as a start because it's the state with the largest population and Amazon does a lot of business in Southern California.
“Fuels are easy to transport,” Schuetzle said, adding that it will deliver the fuel by rail or truck.
He added that the waste carbon that the Texas plant will be using would have otherwise been vented to the atmosphere.
In November, Infinium raised $69 million to commercialize its process, with lead investors including Florida-based NextEra Energy Resources LLC, the world’s largest renewable energy company, and Amazon’s Climate Pledge Fund.
Infinium is one of a cluster of companies in the Sacramento area commercializing low- and zero-carbon technologies.
