Heliogen and Dimensional Energy to produce hydrogen and SAF

Heliogen, Inc. has entered into a letter of intent (LOI) with Dimensional Energy, a sustainable fuels company, to jointly produce sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) at Heliogen’s concentrated solar thermal demonstration facility in Lancaster, California.

The companies will work to deploy Heliogen’s proprietary, artificial intelligence (AI)-powered HelioHeat™ technology to convert sunlight directly into thermal energy in the form of high-temperature steam and air that will be used to produce green hydrogen for Dimensional Energy’s Reactor platform.

The hydrogen will be produced leveraging the previously announced successful demonstration of Heliogen’s concentrated solar technology. As part of the collaboration between Heliogen and Dimensional Energy, the LOI includes a goal of building a fully integrated 1 barrel per day drop-in ready SAF. The parties expect a demonstration project to be the first step to developing a pipeline for approximately 3 million barrels of fuel over the next ten years.

As previously announced, Dimensional Energy has signed a commercial agreement to supply United Airlines with 300 million gallons of SAF over 20 years.

The airline industry is responsible for nearly 3% of global carbon dioxide emissions, while the United Nations expects airplane carbon dioxide emissions to triple by 2050. SAF is a direct replacement for conventional jet fuel, and can enable the rapid decarbonisation of the global aviation sector when produced from carbon-free energy sources like the sun instead of petroleum. The SAF market is projected to grow from $219 million in 2021 to $15.7 billion by 2030, expanding at a 60.8% CAGR, according to ResearchandMarkets.com.

Bill Gross, Founder and CEO of Heliogen, said, “Dimensional’s flexible thermal utilisation platform is the most scalable and cost-effective solution, and when combined with Heliogen’s transformative concentrated solar technology, this partnership brings us one crucial step closer to a future where we can fly planes on fuel created by sunlight and air – not fossil fuels.”

Jason Salfi, Co-founder and CEO of Dimensional Energy, said, “Leveraging Heliogen’s breakthrough technology to use sunlight to produce SAF will help demonstrate the potential for a truly carbon-free, more affordable, and drop-in replacement for conventional jet fuel.”