UAV Sustainable Flight Fund, managed by United, has made its first investment, a $5 million investment to algae biofuel company Viridos.
The $5 million investment will support the production of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) made from algae, an abundant and scalable resource that can be grown and harvested without affecting the food supply chain.
Viridos specializes in the bioengineering of microalgae, and its proprietary technology accelerates the amount of oil that can produced from microalgae. This algae oil could then be used to scale the future production of SAF.
SAF is an alternative to conventional jet fuel that, on a lifecycle basis, reduces greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions associated with air travel compared to conventional jet fuel alone. SAF is made from used cooking oil and agricultural waste and, in the future, could be made from other feedstocks, including household trash, forest waste or algae. To date, United has invested in the future production