AIR.Data: Ethanol Production

Most things produced or cultivated either release or require carbon in some capacity. This is true across the entire supply chain of a product – from production all the way until it ends up at its final destination: in your hands. From material production to the electricity and fuel used during transport, carbon dioxide (CO₂) is expelled in abundance into the atmosphere. Rising levels of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases have resulted in a steady pattern of warming that our planet and all that inhabit it are reacting to which presents a critical opportunity to reduce CO₂ levels across industry supply chains, while also decreasing other environmental impacts that result from land and water usage. 

At AIR COMPANY, we firmly believe in working with nature, rather than against it. We believe in the power of using nature as a blueprint for solving climate change. We recently took a company-wide trip up to the Catskills, New York to reconnect with nature and our company’s “why.” We understand how complicated it can be to wrap your mind around carbon conversion technology, why it matters, who it serves and the science behind it. So with that in mind, we created a way to visually showcase how our patented AIRMADE™ Technology compares against traditional ethanol production processes. 

Using our employees as data points, we dove into the following metrics: 

• Land Use: The amount of land needed to cultivate corn for ethanol production is a major criticism of the industry, with corn-based ethanol production requiring over 16,000 times more land than our technology. These processes also decrease the amount of corn crop that can be distributed for human consumption. Shifting away from these conventional production processes will be a major win for food security, environmental harms and emissions reductions overall. 

• Water Use: Our technology uses 85% less water than traditional corn-based ethanol. With our system, we completely mitigate the need to harvest agriculture, a water and land intensive process. 

• Tree Efficiency: While trees are our planet’s natural solution for carbon removal, they are only 1% as efficient as our system. For every liter of alcohol produced with our AIRMADE™ Technology, we remove the carbon equivalent of 8 fully-grown Acacia trees in a single day. 

At AIR COMPANY, we are constantly working towards greater impact. We want to leave natural resources untouched wherever possible, and continue to innovate across our supply chain to foster the transition to a decarbonized economy. We believe this is possible and this visual exercise is a demonstration of our progress at work.