Wildfire Energy Raises US$1.3 Mn in Round from Climate Tech Partners

The investment came from Climate Tech Partners, along with Qantas and Airbus through Climate Tech Partners' Aviation Sidecar fund.

Wildfire Energy has developed a new gasification technology that turns untreated waste, including household red-bin waste, into syngas. This gas can be used to produce electricity, heat, and low-carbon fuels such as methanol and sustainable aviation fuel (SAF).

The company's technology does not require waste to be sorted or processed before use. It is modular, easy to scale, and can help councils reduce landfill waste and lower emissions across Australia.

The new investment will help Wildfire Energy complete its commercial-scale demonstration plant at Bulwer Island near Brisbane. Once successful, the company plans to expand the technology across regional Australia and other countries through a licensing model.

In addition, the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) has awarded $3.15 million in grant funding. The grant will help Wildfire Energy upgrade its pilot plant to produce bio-methanol from waste for sustainable aviation fuel and carry out a feasibility study for future commercial facilities in Brisbane and Queensland.

Patrick Sieb, Co-founder of Climate Tech Partners said: “SAF production is desperately needed - and the Iran crisis over the last two months has shown how volatile fuel supply chains are. The market is there. What Wildfire Energy offers is a lower cost of production option, a modular technology that can easily be licensed globally and an opportunity to also deal with waste at low cost.”

Greg Perkins, CEO and Co-founder of Wildfire Energy said: “Recent global events have highlighted the vulnerabilities of relying solely on fuel imports. Wildfire’s technology converts abundant negative value wastes into low cost sustainable fuels and chemicals, enabling local production to meet local demand. For the aviation sector our solution delivers a sovereign fuel supply and helps airlines meet mandates for sustainable aviation fuel which are coming into effect now. We have the technological solution, the efficient cost curve. Now we need to scale.”

Stephen Forshaw, Airbus Chief Representative in Australia said: “Scaling SAF production requires optimising the cost and managing the complexity of feedstock preparation. For Australia, where foodstuffs and ‘red bins’ are as disparate as our population, the fact that Wildfire's solution can be deployed locally and at scale holds significant advantages. Local SAF production needs to be brought online to reduce our reliance on imported fuels, which is why Airbus is backing innovations that will make its local production more efficient.”

Founded in 2016, Wildfire Energy aims to reduce landfill waste by turning leftover waste into renewable energy, hydrogen, and sustainable fuels such as bio-methanol and sustainable aviation fuel. Every year, the world produces more than 2 billion tonnes of solid waste, and landfills are responsible for over 5% of global greenhouse gas emissions.

The company has developed a technology called MIHG (Moving Injection Horizontal Gasification), which converts waste into bio-syngas. This gas can be used to produce electricity, hydrogen, and sustainable fuels with very low or even negative carbon emissions. Wildfire Energy's modular plants are designed to be affordable, easy to deploy, and capable of processing both biomass and other waste materials.

Read Also- PhonePe Insurance CEO Vishal Gupta Steps Down to Launch a Startup