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Is it possible for you to drink the ashes? Climate crisis?
Air CompanyThis is what the company is trying to discover. The company has created a method to convert carbon dioxide into impurity free alcohols, such as vodka.
“We work with partners that capture that carbon dioxide before it’s emitted into the atmosphere, and then we use that CO2 in our process in creating the alcohols that we create,” Air Company CEO and co-founder Gregory ConstantineCNBC Monday, Monday. “It’s obviously far better for the planet in that we’re removing CO2 for every bottle that we’re creating.”
The CompanyAccording to its website, it was founded by Constantine and Dr. Stafford Sheehan in 2019. It uses a proprietary and patented technology. TechnologyThis mimics photosynthesis by capturing carbon dioxide, and then transforming it into pure alcohols. It leaves only oxygen and water behind. These alcoholsThe company then uses them to make eau de parfum and hand sanitizer. CNBC estimates that vodka costs around $65 per bottle.
Sheehan, who serves as the company’s chief technology officer, told Fast Company in 2021 that the decision to make vodkaIt was a serendipitous event.
“We ended up targeting premium spirits because the ethanol that we were making was really, really high purity, and the place where you can recognize the benefits of that really high purity is in a really premium vodka,” he said.
An average vodka bottle emits 13 pounds of greenhouse gas emissions. Air Vodka actually reduces carbon dioxide by about one pound. The vodka was first released in New York just before the pandemic. When the first lockdown was announced by the government, the company used its technology for hand sanitizer.
“During the pandemic, we put out a sanitation product — a hand sanitizer that we’ve donated throughout New York and across the U.S.,” Constantine told TechCrunch.
CNBC reported that the vodka is now available at New York bars such as Bathtub Gin, where it is drawing positive attention.
“Once we tell them, ’hey, this is how it’s made and it’s got a negative carbon footprint, all those really beautiful things, is what happens to make them want it even more,” Bathtub Gin beverage director and head bartender Brendan Bartley told CNBC.
TechCrunch reported that the company has raised $30 million in Series-A funding from companies such as Toyota Ventures (JetBlue Technology Ventures) and Parley for Oceans. The funding will go towards building a third facility with the company’s largest carbon utilization system so far.
“Our immediate goal at Air Company is to further improve and scale our technology that converts carbon dioxide into the cleanest, lowest carbon intensity alcohols for consumer products, on the path to industrial applications,” Sheehan told TechCrunch. “Ultimately, we aim to truly have an impact toward addressing climate change by utilizing waste and atmospheric carbon dioxide to displace fossil fuels at-scale; replacing the carbon that we currently extract from the ground, with carbon removed from the air.”
Constantine said that the funding would help make more of Air’s carbon negative products available.
“The funding that we’ve brought on is to really help scale those products to meet demand because we’re constantly selling out of all the products that we produce,” he told TechCrunch.
