SpiralWave's container-based system could transform SAF production
Silicon Valley startup demonstrates direct CO2-to-methanol technology that could revolutionise sustainable aviation fuel production.
Executive summary
SpiralWave has created a single-step CO2-to-methanol conversion system using plasma reactors that eliminate the need for separate carbon capture and electrolysis.
Recent research shows that e-methanol SAF can achieve 90% carbon conversion vs 61-77% for Fischer-Tropsch, using less energy.
Their container units could enable local SAF production at airports through on-site methanol-to-jet processing units, cutting transport costs.
Each container could produce 500kg-1 ton methanol daily. Ten units could match the world's largest e-methanol plant output.
The company is still in the pre-commercial phase, with a 2025 pilot planned. Their demo was completed at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 and has received interest from a global transport and energy conglomerate.
A Silicon Valley startup has demonstrated what it claims is a groundbreaking approach to renewable fuel production: converting CO2 directly from air into methanol in a single step.
SpiralWave, backed by venture capital firm SOSV through its IndieBio deep tech accelerator programme, has developed a plasma-based technology that eliminates several costly and energy-intensive steps typically required in methanol production.
For the aviation industry, the potential is a new pathway for decentralised SAF production and coincides with heightened interest in methanol as a SAF pathway due to its greater efficiencies. (Over the past year, we have featured several companies, including HIF Global and Metafuels, that are exploring e-methanol's potential for aviation applications.)
The benefits of e-methanol
Research published earlier this year in the journal Fuel demonstrated several advantages for producing SAF through the e-methanol pathway as opposed to the nearly 100-year-old Fischer Tropsch (FT) process, where CO2 and hydrogen are converted into syngas and put through an FT reactor.
The research shows that while Fischer-Tropsch processes convert 61-77% of carbon inputs into jet fuel, the methanol pathway can achieve up to 90%. Perhaps more importantly for commercial applications, the study found that the methanol process requires less energy input overall, operating at lower temperatures and generating heat during production rather than constantly consuming it.
However, traditional methanol production – whether conventional or renewable – faces significant complexity and cost barriers.
Currently, producing methanol for aviation fuel requires multiple expensive steps:
First, capturing and purifying CO2;
Then converting water to hydrogen through electrolysis;
Finally, combining these elements to create methanol.
Each step requires substantial infrastructure and investment.
This can be seen in practice at facilities like Iceland's George Olah Renewable Methanol plant, which was the world's first industrial-scale facility to produce fuel from CO2 when it opened in 2012. Even after expanding from 1,300 to 4,000 tonnes per year capacity, its production represents just a fraction of potential demand. According to Carbon Recycling International, which operates the plant, while its production process can achieve 80-90% reduction in carbon dioxide emissions compared to fossil fuels, it still requires significant infrastructure.
SpiralWave aims to disrupt this cost and complexity.
Breaking down the innovation
"We are the first company in history to make liquid fuel out of thin air," SpiralWave's co-founder and COO Adam Amad claimed at TechCrunch Disrupt’s 2024 Startup Battlefield, referring to their direct one-step conversion process.
While other companies produce fuels from captured CO2, they typically require multiple conversion steps, including carbon capture and electrolysis. Instead, their system directly converts air and water into methanol using what Amad described as "the first microchip-based fuel synthesis reactor."
The technology centres on a plasma reactor that can process ambient air or industrial emissions. At the TechCrunch event, the company demonstrated a two-meter chamber containing plasma reactors converting CO2 directly from air into methanol. The system operates at relatively low temperatures – around 100°F – and captures the produced methanol in a water tank, taking advantage of methanol's solubility in water.
From lab to container
Referring to the George Olah plant, Amad told us that "the largest e-methanol plant produces 4,000 tons per year... That's one-tenth of what a single container ship consumes per year.” Amad explained that just ten of their 20-foot containers could match this production capacity.
Each shipping container in SpiralWave's system is designed to produce 500 kilograms to one metric ton of methanol daily, depending on the input gas's CO2 concentration. TechCrunch says the process achieves 75-90% energy efficiency when working with various CO2 sources, from concentrated industrial emissions to captured CO2.
The potential economics could be promising: Amad told us their process could achieve price parity with conventional fossil-fuel-produced methanol when using electricity costing four cents per kilowatt-hour or less. (By way of comparison, according to IRENA, the cheapest renewable energy is onshore wind at three cents per kilowatt hour.)
Moving toward implementation
Amad acknowledges that a new approach will face scrutiny.
"We recognise there's a lot of scepticism in terms of our technology because it's new," he says. However, he points to the company's TechCrunch demonstration as evidence of its potential, where they successfully produced methanol from air with just 0.04% CO2 concentration.
With its first pilot plant scheduled for 2025 and a funding round planned for Q1 of the same year, SpiralWave is preparing for commercial deployment. Amad says the company is currently in discussions with potential partners in the steel and power sectors. The company says a large global transport, logistics, and energy conglomerate has already expressed interest in a significant offtake agreement.
Infrastructure and scaling potential
For the aviation industry, SpiralWave's technology could facilitate access to methanol feedstock, requiring only an electrical connection and CO2 source for their containerised units.
One could envision methanol-to-SAF refineries being established near aviation hubs, with SpiralWave's containerised units providing the methanol feedstock at far cheaper rates than the status quo. The modular nature of the container system could allow methanol production capacity to scale in line with demand and decarbonisation targets.
While the technology remains pre-commercial, its approach to methanol synthesis could offer the aviation industry an additional pathway to increased SAF production – particularly if the projected efficiency gains materialise at commercial scale.