Alder Fuels

Alder Fuels is a cleantech company that is pioneering bio-fuel technologies for producing sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) at scale by converting abundant biomass, such as forest and crop waste, into sustainable low-carbon, drop-in replacement crude oil that can be used to produce aviation fuel.

Alder holds patents including an Advanced Pyrolysis Oil (APO) technology solution that can be directly implemented and operated within the world’s existing oil refinery infrastructure, which is currently scaling a commercial pilot in partnership with the Department of Defense (DOD) of the USA. Additionally, Alder has been awarded exclusive rights to the wet-waste volatile fatty acids (VFA) intellectual property from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), its technical research partner, for commercialisation of carbon negative fuels, including SAF.

Key strategic shareholders of Alder include: 

• United Airlines, through its corporate venture capital fund, United Airlines Ventures, which is focused on improving the travel experience for customers by investing in new technologies and sustainable solutions – all while empowering and supporting emerging companies in the process. As part of the agreement, United has committed to purchase 1.5 billion gallons of SAF from Alder. United’s purchase agreement, which is one and a half times the size of the known purchase commitments of all global airlines combined, makes it the largest publicly announced SAF agreement in aviation history. 
• Honeywell, with direct engagement of its subsidiary Honeywell UOP, which is specialised in developing and delivering technology to the petroleum refining, gas processing, petrochemical production, and major manufacturing industries, and which established the SAF market with its UOP Eco-fining process, the first technology used to maximize the SAF production for commercial aviation. 

Furthermore, Alder is one of the projects included within the US President Biden’s plan to coordinate leadership and innovation across the federal government, aircraft manufacturers, airlines, fuel producers, airports, and non-governmental organizations to advance the use of cleaner and more sustainable fuels in American aviation. 

For over a decade, Adequita Capital’s management has supported founding members of Alder Fuels. Adequita joined the company’s board early 2020 and, to date, actively participates in the development Alder’s long-term financial strategy, biomass sourcing and client business development.