SAN FRANCISCO: BMW has the hots for a company that claims it can remove carbon dioxide from the air and turn it into zero-net carbon petrol.
So much so it is investing US$12.5mil (RM53.4mil) in the Californian start-up via its subsidiary BMW i Ventures.
Prometheus Fuels said it would sell the petrol at gas stations, at a price that competes with fossil fuels, starting as early as this year.
"The ability to create gasoline (petrol) from air, cost competitively with fossil fuels, is a game changer,” said BMW i Ventures partner Greg Smithies.
“The average car stays on the road for over eight years; meaning that even if the whole world switched to buying 100% electric cars tomorrow, it would still take almost a decade for today’s internal combustion engines to be off the road. Clearly we aren’t switching to 100% electric vehicles tomorrow, so that’s not fast enough.
"By creating carbon-neutral gasoline from CO2 captured from the air, Prometheus Fuels allows the climate impact of today’s internal combustion engines to be massively reduced immediately.”
Replacing all fuels made from oil and gas with zero-net-carbon fuels can reduce 25% of global carbon emissions, making this one of the largest levers the world has in the fight against climate change.
Founded by Rob McGinnis, a Yale Engineering PhD with multiple successful startups under his belt, Prometheus launched from Y Combinator in early 2019. The company’s mission is to eliminate the need for fossil fuels by removing CO2 from the air and turning it into petrol that can immediately be used in standard vehicles with no modifications.
