Maersk invests in Silicon Valley electrofuels startup Prometheus Fuels
Maersk Growth, the venture arm of Copenhagen, Denmark-based A.P Moller-Maersk, announced an undisclosed investment in Prometheus Fuels, a Silicon Valley-based startup with direct air capture technology to enable cost-efficient, carbon-neutral eFuels for shipping.
September 24, 2021: Maersk Growth, the venture arm of Copenhagen, Denmark-based A.P Moller-Maersk, announced an undisclosed investment in Prometheus Fuels, a Silicon Valley-based startup with direct air capture technology to enable cost-efficient, carbon-neutral eFuels for shipping.
The world’s leading shipping liner Maersk, with 739 ships and a container capacity of 4.3 million TEUs, is expecting several fuels in the future fuel mix and has identified four pathways to decarbonisation: biodiesel, alcohols, lignin-enhanced alcohols and ammonia.
Maersk had invested in WasteFuel, a California-based startup producing green bio-methanol from waste earlier this month.
“Prometheus Fuels is developing a very exciting and innovative technology to produce carbon-based electrofuels from direct air capture of CO2,” Morten Bo Christiansen, head of decarbonisation, A.P. Moller - Maersk, said in their statement. “Electrofuels are expected to play a key role for the decarbonisation of shipping and, if scaled successfully, Prometheus Fuels’ technology will address a key constraint for carbon-based electrofuels – namely the cost competitiveness of direct air capture.”
Prometheus Fuels said it has become the world’s first electrofuels unicorn (startup valued at over $1 billion) with a valuation of $1.5 billion with the closing of Series B funding by Maersk, Metaplant and BMW.
“Our zero net carbon, zero sulphur electrofuel doesn’t compete with food production – it comes from renewable electricity and air so its feedstock is limitless,” said Rob McGinnis, founder and CEO, Prometheus Fuels. “Our electrofuel offers a truly viable solution to decarbonise shipping – one that can scale and be implemented in time to avoid catastrophic global warming. We’re excited to partner with Maersk, a global leader in decarbonisation in the transportation and shipping industries, to accelerate this transition.”
Peter Votkjaer Jorgensen, partner at Maersk Growth, will join the board of Prometheus Fuels.
More than 150 companies, including shipping lines, ports and oil giants, sought measures earlier this week to fully decarbonise the shipping industry by 2050 including the introduction of market-based measures by 2025.