Sacramento clean fuel technology company Infinium is now operating the world’s first commercial-scale electrofuel plant in southeast Texas, and it is preparing to begin operations at another larger plant in west Texas in two years.
Infinium uses 100% renewable-sourced electricity along with waste carbon dioxide to make its “electrofuel,” which is a zero-carbon drop-in replacement for petroleum-sourced diesel and jet fuel.
Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT) founder Bill Gates, whose climate fund is an investor in Infinium, toured the ultra-low-carbon fuel plant at its opening last month.
Fuel from the Pathfinder plant will be used by Amazon delivery trucks to reduce the e-commerce giant's carbon footprint. Seattle-based Amazon (Nasdaq: AMZN) is also an investor in Infinium.
The synthetic efuels that Infinium produces can be used in existing diesel motors and jet engines. The fuel needs no other processing, and the owners of trucks and planes don’t need to make any modifications to use the low-carbon fuel.
Infinium began operations at its Pathfinder refinery in Corpus Christi at the end of March.
The larger Project Roadrunner energy-to-fuel manufacturing plant should be operational in 2026, said Infinium spokeswoman Leigh Picchetti. The Roadrunner refinery is larger than Pathfinder.
Gates is also founder of Kirkland, Washington-based renewable energy investment fund Breakthrough Energy, whose mission is to accelerate deployment of renewable energy technology to get to net-zero emissions by 2050.
In December, Breakthrough Energy made a $75 million equity commitment to Infinium’s Project Roadrunner. That deal includes partners Citigroup Inc. and American Airlines Group Inc. As part of the agreement, American Airlines (Nasdaq: AAL) and Infinium have agreed to a long-term firm fuel offtake agreement that will enable further investment into the project. Basically, the airline has agreed to buy fuel from the plant. Another part of the same agreement has American Airlines and Citi (NYSE: C) separately agreeing to transfer associated emission reduction credits to Citi to support the scaling of the technology. That will help Citi reduce its U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Scope 3 emissions related to its own employees’ travel.
Infinium is one of a cluster of companies in the Sacramento area commercializing low- and zero-carbon technologies. Infinium has its headquarters in Midtown Sacramento and it operates a manufacturing plant in West Sacramento where it makes the chemical catalysts for its patented industrial processes.
Infinium also has contracts to build electrofuel plants in Norway and in Dunkirk, France.
The company tends to locate its refineries where there is ready access to excess renewable electricity and also sources of waste carbon. Most companies struggle to deal with waste carbon. Infinium makes it into an asset.
In Norway, the waste carbon will come from a steel plant. In Dunkirk, the Infinium location is next to an ArcelorMittal S.A. steel plant in the port city. Luxembourg-based ArcelorMittal (NYSE: MT) is the world's second-largest steelmaker. Infinium fuels can also be used in maritime applications to clean up ship exhausts.
An earlier version of this story misstated the Roadrunner refinery's size.
