United today announced that the UAV Sustainable Flight Fund has made an investment in direct air capture (DAC) company Heirloom, adding Heirloom’s measurable, quantifiable carbon reduction technology to its already robust portfolio of decarbonization strategies. The Fund also entered into an agreement for the right to purchase up to 500,000 tons of carbon dioxide removal (CDR) to be delivered for the production of sustainable aviation fuel or permanently stored underground.
Heirloom’s already-proven and scalable technology accelerates the natural power of limestone to capture CO2 directly from the air – making it potentially one of the lowest cost pathways for removing carbon dioxide.
“Carbon capture is one of our country’s fastest growing, energy enabling pathways,” said Andrew Chang, head of United Airlines Ventures. “At UAV, our primary focus is finding solutions for decarbonization that are profitable. Heirloom’s technology aligns directly with this objective, offering a scalable and commercially viable approach and complements United’s commitment to net zero by 2050.”
“We are incredibly proud to welcome the United Sustainable Flight Fund as an investor and to work with them to scale our DAC technology,” said Shashank Samala, CEO of Heirloom. “By utilizing DAC as a dual-pronged tool that can both greatly reduce CO2 emission from aviation fuel and remove residual emissions, we are charting a true path to Net Zero aviation.”
Heirloom marks United’s third carbon capture investment but the first in a company commercializing direct air capture technology. DAC is one of two main forms of carbon capture utilization and storage, along with point source capture. Unlike point source capture which captures CO2 from a specific emitting source, like a power plant, DAC removes atmospheric CO2.
The UAV Sustainable Flight FundSM is a first-of-its-kind investment vehicle designed to leverage support from cross-industry businesses in order to support start-ups focused on decarbonizing air travel. The fund is comprised of more than $200 million in investment commitments from United and corporate partners including: Air Canada, Air New Zealand, Aircastle (a Marubeni & Mizuho Leasing Company), American Express Global Business Travel, Aviation Capital Group, Boeing, Boston Consulting Group, Embraer, GE Aerospace, Google, Groupe ADP, Hawaiian Airlines, HIS, Honeywell, JetBlue Ventures, Natixis Corporate & Investment Banking, Safran Corporate Ventures, and Technip Energies, among others. For more information about the fund, please visit the United Airlines Ventures website.
Since its founding in 2020, Heirloom has become one of the world’s leading DAC companies. In 2023, Heirloom began operating North America’s first commercial DAC facility in Tracy, California. Heirloom is part of the team building Project Cypress — a Department of Energy supported DAC Hub, which is eligible for up to $600 million in government funding, and which will bring large-scale carbon removal to Louisiana and create nearly 1,000 new jobs.
