Aviation has a problem that better aircraft alone cannot solve. Long-distance flights still depend on energy-dense liquid fuels, and replacing that dependence is considerably harder than changing the engine that burns them. Twelve, a California-based industrial technology company, is approaching the challenge from an unexpected direction: rather than extracting the hydrocarbons that make jet fuel from the ground, it manufactures them using captured carbon dioxide, water, and electricity.
On June 10, 2026, that approach reached an important commercial milestone. At Moses Lake, Washington, Twelve inaugurated AirPlant One, a facility designed to manufacture synthetic sustainable aviation fuel at commercial scale. The opening brought together representatives of Alaska Airlines and Microsoft, two companies whose early commitments helped establish a market for the plant’s output. The facility also produces E-Naphtha, a chemical feedstock used in manufacturing everyday materials.
The significance of AirPlant One extends beyond the production of a new fuel. It represents an attempt to change the industrial process behind familiar products, creating an alternative route to the hydrocarbons that remain central to transportation and manufacturing.
Building Hydrocarbons Differently
The science behind Twelve’s approach begins with carbon dioxide rather than crude oil. Its proprietary electrochemical technology uses electricity to transform captured CO₂ and water into intermediate compounds, which are subsequently processed into hydrocarbon products. The company combines this conversion technology with established chemical synthesis and fuel-refining processes to manufacture its products.
At Moses Lake, the carbon feedstock comes from a biogenic source associated with ethanol production in the Pacific Northwest, while the facility uses electricity generated by Columbia River hydropower. The distinction matters: the process does not depend on extracting petroleum, but neither should its description as fuel made from air be mistaken for a claim that the plant directly captures all its carbon from the atmosphere.
Twelve markets the resulting aviation fuel under the name E-Jet. Its synthetic fuel meets the ASTM D7566 Annex A1 specification, which provides a route for approved synthetic components to be blended with conventional aviation fuel at permitted ratios of up to 50%. Once blended in accordance with the applicable specifications, the fuel can be handled through existing aviation infrastructure and used in compatible aircraft without redesigning engines or fuel systems.
This compatibility addresses one of the commercial obstacles facing alternative aviation fuels. Airlines cannot easily replace entire fleets or rebuild airport distribution networks to accommodate a new energy source. A synthetic fuel that can enter established supply chains has a more direct route to adoption.
Twelve estimates that E-Jet can deliver lifecycle emissions reductions of up to 90% compared with conventional jet fuel. That figure depends on the production pathway, including the source of the carbon and the electricity used. It is a potential advantage rather than a universal outcome for every synthetic fuel installation.
The company also sees a financial argument. By tying production economics more closely to electricity procurement agreements, it aims to reduce exposure to the volatility associated with conventional oil markets. The company presents long-term price visibility, potentially extending beyond a decade, as another reason airlines may consider the technology.
A Chemical Feedstock With Wider Possibilities
Aviation provides Twelve with a demanding first application, but the company’s technology has a broader industrial purpose.
AirPlant One produces E-Naphtha alongside E-Jet. Conventional naphtha is an important feedstock for the petrochemical industry, used in processes that produce plastics, packaging materials, solvents, and synthetic fibres. By manufacturing an alternative from captured carbon and electricity, the company is seeking to change the origins of these materials without requiring downstream manufacturers to abandon familiar production methods.
Its earlier collaborations offer examples of how this approach might work. Mercedes-Benz has explored automotive interior components made with polymers derived from CO₂-based feedstocks. Fashion brand PANGAIA developed polycarbonate sunglass lenses under its CO2Made initiative, while Procter & Gamble worked on incorporating CO₂-derived ingredients into Tide laundry detergent.
These projects demonstrate potential applications across several industries, although individual product collaborations should not be confused with proof that every application has reached widespread commercial production. The larger proposition is that changing a material’s starting point could eventually reduce dependence on fossil-derived feedstocks across multiple supply chains.
Twelve commissioned a survey of more than 1,000 American consumers in 2025 to examine attitudes toward this approach. In the company’s findings, 74% of respondents said they would favour a CO₂-derived product over an oil-derived alternative when quality was equal. Another 90% regarded eliminating fossil fuels from everyday products as important. Apparel, accessories, and footwear attracted the greatest reported interest, followed by consumer technology and personal-care products.
The findings suggest a potential opening for manufacturers, though stated preferences do not necessarily translate into purchasing behaviour. For Twelve, the commercial task is to turn that interest into products that meet established performance requirements and compete on price.
Capital and Customers Before Construction
Developing a first-of-a-kind industrial facility requires more than laboratory validation. Investors need confidence in the technology, while customers need evidence that a supplier can deliver a consistent product at a commercially useful scale. The company’s progress has depended on building these relationships alongside its engineering work.
Alaska Airlines and Microsoft committed to purchasing output associated with the project in 2022, providing an early commercial signal before AirPlant One reached operation. Alaska Star Ventures, the airline’s investment arm, subsequently participated in Twelve’s Series C financing.
In September 2024, the company announced a $645 million financing package comprising up to $400 million in project equity led by TPG Rise Climate, approximately $200 million in Series C financing, and $45 million in credit facilities. The package was intended to support the development of AirPlant One and the company’s broader plans for commercial fuel production.
Microsoft’s participation extended beyond investment through its Climate Innovation Fund. The technology company also entered into a sustainable aviation fuel agreement using a book-and-claim accounting structure. Under this arrangement, the environmental attributes associated with qualifying fuel can be allocated to a buyer’s emissions accounting even when the buyer’s own aircraft do not physically use that particular batch of fuel.
For Alaska Airlines, the partnership offers a route toward using fuel produced within Washington State while supporting the development of a domestic supply chain. Ryan Spies, the airline’s Managing Director of Sustainability, has represented the initiative as part of its broader effort to advance sustainable aviation fuel and strengthen supply security.
The importance of these commitments lies in their timing. Customers and financing partners were involved before the plant began commercial production, helping address the uncertainty that often surrounds emerging industrial technologies.
A Market Taking Shape
Demand for lower-carbon aviation fuel is increasingly being shaped by regulation as well as voluntary corporate commitments. Under the European Union’s ReFuelEU Aviation rules, suppliers must meet a minimum sustainable aviation fuel share of 2% at covered EU airports from 2025. A separate requirement for synthetic aviation fuels begins in 2030, creating an additional potential market for power-to-liquid production.
Singapore is developing its own framework, with a target for sustainable aviation fuel to account for 1% of aviation fuel uplift from 2027 and an ambition to increase that share to between 3% and 5% by 2030, depending on global developments and fuel availability.
Such policies do not guarantee a market for Twelve, but they help establish the conditions under which airlines and fuel suppliers must evaluate alternative sources of supply. Producers will still need to demonstrate reliable output, competitive economics, and compliance with the applicable sustainability and certification requirements.
Infrastructure is another part of the equation. The company has been working with World Fuel to assess how E-Jet can be blended, stored, quality-checked, and delivered through established aviation-fuel networks. The objective is to make distribution compatible with the logistics airlines already use, avoiding the need for an entirely separate supply system.
From One Facility to a Manufacturing Platform
AirPlant One is designed to produce up to 100 barrels of fuel per day. Its importance, however, lies partly in what Twelve can learn from operating its first commercial-scale facility: how its integrated systems perform outside the laboratory, how production can be maintained consistently, and how suppliers, customers, and logistics partners work together.
On September 9, 2026, the company announced a credit facility of up to $45 million arranged with Nomura and Endurance Capital. The financing refinanced the construction facility associated with AirPlant One and included an option to support further expansion at the site.
The company’s longer-term strategy involves building additional plants using the knowledge gained in Moses Lake. Its future AirPlant designs aim for substantially greater capacity, with the company targeting production in the thousands of barrels per day at larger facilities. Achieving that expansion will require dependable supplies of low-carbon electricity and suitable carbon feedstocks, alongside further investment and long-term purchase commitments.
The underlying challenge is therefore not simply whether carbon dioxide can be transformed into fuel. Twelve has demonstrated that its process can operate at commercial scale. The next challenge is economic and industrial: reproducing the process in additional locations, increasing output, and delivering fuel at a cost that customers can sustain.
AirPlant One gives the company a working foundation for that next stage. The company’s wider ambition reaches beyond a single aviation fuel or one factory in Washington. If its technology can be deployed economically across multiple sites, it could provide manufacturers with another way to obtain the hydrocarbons their products require.
The future of this approach will be decided by production figures, dependable supply, customer adoption, and the economics of each new facility. For Twelve, the first commercial plant is an important beginning. Its larger achievement would be to make a different method of producing fuels and chemicals repeatable enough to compete across the industries that depend on them.
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