SK Trading International (SKTI), a wholly owned subsidiary of SK Innovation, announced today it has closed a round of institutional funding into Infinium, a clean fuels innovator.

Incorporated in Sacramento, California in 2020, Infinium possesses liquid fuel synthesis technology and develops a production technology that synthesizes hydrogen and carbon dioxide into ultra-low carbon transportation fuels. Using catalyst technology developed over the last 15 years, Infinium’s speed of commercialization is the fastest in this industry and it plans to continuously increase its scale with the first commercial production in Texas, USA next year.

Electrofuel (e-fuel) uses green electricity to separate water into hydrogen and oxygen, and combines and processes this hydrogen with carbon dioxide to produce gasoline, diesel, and aviation fuel. Creating e-fuel through an industrial process or by capturing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere has the effect of reducing carbon and obtaining fuel, and this technology is considered to be a core technology for next generation carbon reduction. In particular, e-fuel is gaining traction as a sustainable aviation fuel that can replace a hard-to-replace petroleum-based liquid fuel used in the aviation transport industry. Among the next generation aviation fuels, the currently-commercialized bio-fuel has some limitations in the supply and demand of raw materials. However, e-fuel, which uses water and carbon dioxide as raw materials, has no such limitations in the supply and demand of raw materials. The European Union plans to make the use of e-fuel compulsory, starting at 0.7% in 2030 and increasing it to 28% by 2050. The industry predicts that the e-fuel market size would increase from 130,000 barrels per day in 2030 to 2 million barrels per day in 2050.

As such, when producing e-fuel using Infinium’s technology, carbon dioxide emission is significantly captured and reduced on e-fuel-based fuels in comparison to that of petroleum-based fuels.

SKTI’s investment in Infinium is a significant step toward the implementation of SK Innovation’s “Carbon to Green Strategy,” announced last year, and is the first investment in the next-generation green energy field. SKTI, as the only petroleum product trading company in Korea, plans to support the acceleration of e-fuel.

“SKTI is excited about the opportunity to expand green energy supply opportunities globally through its investment in Infinium to achieve net zero activities. With this investment, we aim to support the acceleration of Infinium e-fuel adoption globally.” said Suh Sok-won, CEO of SKTI.

“We welcome SK to our portfolio of investors and appreciate the confidence they have placed in us as we ramp production of Infinium e-fuel for global markets.” noted Infinium CEO Robert Schuetzle.

[Photo]

On September 30 (KST), at SK Seorin Building in Seoul, Suh Sok-won, CEO of SKTI, Roh Sang-goo, Head of SK Energy’s Strategy Operation Division, and Robert Schuetzle, CEO of Infinium (on the TV screen), take a commemorative photo at the online signing ceremony for the joint venture.