Sustainable Biz - Magazine - Page 34
United Sustainable Flight Fund
Invests in Heirloom to Scale Direct
Air Capture
U
nited has announced that
the UAV Sustainable Flight
Fund has made an investment
in direct air capture (DAC)
company Heirloom, adding Heirloom's
measurable, quantifiable carbon reduction
technology to its already robust portfolio
of decarbonization strategies. The Fund
also entered into an agreement for the right
to purchase up to 500,000 tons of carbon
dioxide removal (CDR) to be delivered for
the production of sustainable aviation fuel or
permanently stored underground.Heirloom's
already-proven and scalable technology
accelerates the natural power of limestone to
capture CO2 directly from the air – making
it potentially one of the lowest cost pathways
for removing carbon dioxide."Carbon
capture is one of our country's fastest
growing, energy enabling pathways," said
Andrew Chang, head of United Airlines
Ventures. "At UAV, our primary focus
is finding solutions for decarbonization
that are profitable. Heirloom's technology
aligns directly with this objective, offering a
scalable and commercially viable approach
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and complements United's commitment
to net zero by 2050."We are incredibly
proud to welcome the United Sustainable
Flight Fund as an investor and to work
with them to scale our DAC technology,"
said Shashank Samala, CEO of Heirloom.
"By utilising DAC as a dual-pronged tool
that can both greatly reduce CO2 emission
from aviation fuel and remove residual
emissions, we are charting a true path to
Net Zero aviation."Heirloom marks United's
third carbon capture investment but the
first in a company commercializing direct
air capture technology. DAC is one of two
main forms of carbon capture utilisation and
storage, along with point source capture.
Unlike point source capture which captures
CO2 from a specific emitting source, like
a power plant, DAC removes atmospheric
CO2.UAV Sustainable Flight FundThe
UAV Sustainable Flight FundSM is a firstof-its-kind investment vehicle designed
to leverage support from cross-industry
businesses in order to support start-ups
focused on decarbonizing air travel. The fund
is comprised of more than $200 million in
S U S TA I N A B L E B I Z M A G A Z I N E
MAY 2025
By utilising DAC as a dualpronged tool that can both
greatly reduce CO₂ emissions
from aviation fuel and remove
residual emissions, we are
charting a true path to Net
Zero aviation.
investment commitments from United and
corporate partners including: Air Canada,
Air New Zealand, Aircastle (a Marubeni
& Mizuho Leasing Company), American
Express Global Business Travel, Aviation
Capital Group, Boeing, Boston Consulting
Group, Embraer, GE Aerospace, Google,
Groupe ADP, Hawaiian Airlines,
HIS, Honeywell, JetBlue Ventures, Natixis
Corporate & Investment Banking, Safran
Corporate Ventures, and Technip Energies,
among others. For more information about
the fund, please visit the United Airlines
Ventures website.
