Aether Fuels

CHICAGO, Illinois June 26, 2025—Aether Fuels (Aether), a sustainable fuels technology company, today announced a project to demonstrate its breakthrough Aether Aurora™ sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) production solution in a fully integrated one barrel-per-day (BPD) line.  This project is being executed in cooperation with two leading scientific research institutes, RTI International (RTI) and GTI Energy. It marks the next step in the rapid scale-up of the company’s novel technology for commercial deployment. 

The plant will integrate: (a) Aether Aurora Tri-Converter technology (leveraging the Tri-Converter skid recently jointly demonstrated by Aether and GTI); (b) Aether Aurora Upgrading technology; and (c) RTI’s demonstration-size Fischer-Tropsch (FT) reactor. It will be assembled at the RTI Pilot Xcelerator (RPX), a plug-and-play pilot testing site and commercialization ecosystem at RTI’s headquarters in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, which offers space, infrastructure, and core technologies to derisk and scale novel technologies from bench to commercial deployment. 

In the Aether Aurora process, the Tri-Converter turns waste carbon feedstocks into syngas, the syngas feeds a downstream third-party FT reactor, and the FT product is converted by Aether’s Aurora Upgrading process into finished drop-in liquid hydrocarbon fuels.  This integrated plant will be fully operational by the first quarter of 2026. A key priority is to validate that the Aether Aurora technology can be scaled for SAF production.

Aether Aurora builds on technologies first developed by GTI Energy under a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) funded gas-to-liquids program.  In 2022, Aether and GTI Energy established a strategic partnership and executed a global exclusive license for the relevant technologies.  The collaboration has enabled Aether to develop the Aurora solution and accelerate its commercialization plans. 

RTI joins the project with an existing demonstration-size FT reactor and pilot-scale infrastructure capabilities. In the coming months Aether will install the previously demonstrated Tri-Converter skid and a newly built Aether Aurora Upgrading skid at the RTI facility. Once it is operating, Aether will gather 1000+ hours of fully integrated operational data. 

Results from the program will inform the next phase for Aether Aurora—a 50 BPD plant that will operate commercially, bringing the SAF production solution closer to large-scale deployment. 

Conor Madigan, Aether’s CEO, said: “We know from our years-long engagement with GTI Energy that it often takes an ecosystem of diverse partners to innovate ground-breaking energy technologies and create pathways for commercialization. As another leader in this dynamic space, RTI offers the critical capabilities and infrastructure that can accelerate our work, which makes them another exciting partner for Aether. By working with these two leading research institutes, we can execute faster and more economically on our scale-up strategy.”  

Sameer Parvathikar, RTI’s Senior Director of Sustainable Energy Solutions, said: “We are excited to host the Aether Aurora platform at our RPX facility and integrate it with our FT production unit. The project will result in an end-to-end demonstration from feedstock to finished fuel – an important milestone in accelerating the commercialization of this promising innovative technology.”

Don Stevenson, GTI Energy’s VP of Carbon Management and Conversion, said: “At GTI Energy, we are committed to advancing technologies and innovations that drive progress. The Tri-Converter skid is a vital part of that effort, and it is rewarding to see the technology that was incubated in our labs moving rapidly toward commercialization. Bringing together our capabilities with those of our partners, through a collaborative approach, marks a critical step forward in scaling this breakthrough technology.”

Aether Aurora is trademarked by Aether Fuels.

About Aether Fuels

Aether Fuels is a climate technology company revolutionizing sustainable fuel production to help hard-to-abate industries like aviation and ocean shipping achieve their decarbonization goals. Our breakthrough Aether Aurora™ technology converts waste carbon into drop-in liquid fuels with near-ideal carbon conversion efficiency. The scalable solution addresses the core requirements of next-generation sustainable fuels by increasing production yields and reducing capital costs, while utilizing a diverse range of feedstocks. Founded in 2022 and backed by global investors and partners, we maintain principal offices in the U.S. and Singapore. To learn more, visit www.aetherfuels.com or follow us on LinkedIn.

About RTI International

RTI International is an independent scientific research institute dedicated to improving the human condition. Our vision is to address the world's most critical problems with technical and science-based solutions in pursuit of a better future. Clients rely on us to answer questions that demand an objective and multidisciplinary approach—one that integrates expertise across social, statistical, data, and laboratory sciences, engineering, and other technical disciplines to solve the world’s most challenging problems.

About GTI Energy

GTI Energy is a technology development and training organization. Our trusted team works to scale impactful solutions for energy systems by leveraging gases, liquids, infrastructure, and efficiency. We embrace systems thinking, innovation, and collaboration to develop, scale, and deploy the technologies needed for low-emission, low-cost, and resilient energy systems.

Contacts

Aether Fuels Communications  

Kelsey Duke; Diffusion PR for Aether Fuels

E-mail: AetherFuels@Diffusionpr.com  

RTI International

Kerry Branon, RTI Media and Public Relations

E-mail: kbranon@rti.org

GTI Energy  

Kristin Cone

E-mail: kcone@gti.energy