Brookfield Pours $1.1B into Funding Biofuels Producer Infinium’s eFuels

Sept. 11, 2024
Under the agreement, Brookfield will invest more than $200 million in Infinium and its Project Roadrunner, which is currently under development in West Texas. An additional $850 million has been committed for the expansion of other eFuels projects globally.

Waste-to-fuels producer Infinium has secured up to $1.1 billion in funding from Brookfield Asset Management to accelerate the development of its eFuels platform.

Under the agreement, Brookfield will invest more than $200 million in Infinium and its Project Roadrunner, which is currently under development in West Texas. An additional $850 million has been committed for the expansion of other eFuels projects globally, subject to performance metrics.

The investment will be made by the first vintage of the Brookfield Global Transition Fund (BGTF I) and marks Brookfield’s first direct investment in sustainable aviation fuel. Brookfield will also serve as lead in Infinium’s Series C Preferred Stock offering.

Infinium’s eFuels, including the next-generation sustainable aviation fuel (eSAF), are designed to reduce lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions by approximately 90 percent compared to conventional fuels.

The company’s eSAF is produced using a proprietary process that combines water, waste CO2, and renewable energy to create fuels like eSAF, eDiesel, and eNaphtha. eFuels are "drop-in" replacements for fossil-based fuels and can be used without changes to engines or infrastructure in planes, ships, trucks and manufacturing processes.

In a recent agreement, American Airlines committed to purchasing commercial volumes of eSAF produced by Project Roadrunner starting in 2026. This will help the airline meet its sustainability targets by reducing carbon emissions in its fleet.

“Our Project Pathfinder site was the first to bring commercial volumes of eFuels to market, and Project Roadrunner brings additional volumes of eFuels to scale global supplies,” Infinium CEO Robert Schuetzle said. “As our airline partners continue to push for more SAF and decarbonization options, Infinium remains committed to accelerating production to help meet those demands.”

The Project Roadrunner site will also produce eNaphtha for plastics manufacturing and eDiesel for use in sectors like long-haul trucking and maritime transport, which are more difficult to electrify. Infinium is currently finalizing additional offtake agreements for the plant’s remaining capacity.

“Our investment is structured to provide the capital Infinium needs to accelerate the production of sustainable aviation fuels to meet the growing demand from corporate customers while generating attractive risk-adjusted returns for Brookfield,” said Jehangir Vevaina, Managing Partner at Brookfield. “In addition to Roadrunner, Infinium has a large pipeline of well positioned projects to help meet the demand for the structurally short eFuels market, and we are looking forward to the opportunity to participate in the development of further eFuels projects through follow-on investments.”

Brookfield’s investment complements earlier backing from Breakthrough Energy Catalyst, which committed $75 million to Project Roadrunner.

Infinium recently announced a collaboration with plastics supplier Borealis to produce low-carbon plastics from waste carbon dioxide.

Infinium is headed by CEO Robert Schuetzle, who founded clean energy startup Greyrock to develop catalyst technology which could convert alternative feedstocks into liquid fuels. The Greyrock team then formed Infinium.

About the Author

EnergyTech Staff

Rod Walton is senior editor for EnergyTech.com. He has spent 14 years covering the energy industry as a newspaper and trade journalist.

Walton formerly was energy writer and business editor at the Tulsa World. Later, he spent six years covering the electricity power sector for Pennwell and Clarion Events. He joined Endeavor and EnergyTech in November 2021.

He can be reached at [email protected]

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