Dimensional Energy’s New Tucson Plant Committed to Low-Carbon Intensity Fuels
Dimensional Energy, a startup company that aims to transform carbon dioxide into sustainable aviation fuel, has launched its first demonstration plant, producing fuels and products from carbon dioxide and water in Tucson.
Turning a small patch of desert into a fully-functioning carbon utilization site marks the beginning of a new era for the company—the manufacture and sale of reallow carbon-intensity fuels and products, said Jason Salfi, co-founder and CEO of Dimensional Energy.
The demonstration installation integrates three major components of the company’s platform: an electrolyzerfor green hydrogen production, Dimensional’s proprietary reactorandcatalyst for syngas production and a Fischer Tropsch reactor which converts Syngas to liquid fuels and products used every day.
The Dimensional reactor design is running with a carbon conversion 50% higher than the pilot reactor tested in Wyoming last year, and three more are queued up for testing, Salfi said. Already, this new reactor has exceeded its target performance.
In addition to showing the high-carbon conversion and long-term stability of its catalysts and reactor design, Brad Brennan, Dimensional’s CSO, said he is “particularly excited about integrating into a two-step process fluidly—straight from one reactor (Dimensional’s) to another reactor (Fischer Tropsch) to give us a final product.”
This level of integration is a key part of Dimensional’s IP. Brennan described it as monumental. “A seamless transition from one reactor to another is what puts us ahead of the pack,” he said.
Bruce Logue, senior VP of engineering, has spent half the summer at the plant in Tucson and the other half providing and refining Remote Operations Monitoringfrom his home in Texas.
“Doing this remotely enables you to not have so many subject matter experts on any given site,” Logue said. “As we grow, assembling a remote team that can manage a number of different sites from anywhere in the world, will allow us to lower the barrier to entry for industrial emitters who are ready to utilize their supply of carbon dioxide.
“As we proceed further into this groundbreaking work, we’re proud to be fostering an environment where everyone is encouraged to ask questions, expand their overall understanding of the system and advance our technology,” said Salfi. “We’re constantly reminded that novel solutions can come from any member of our team and so rely on everyone to come to work with a healthy sense of curiosity.”
