Boston-based tech start-up Lydian has closed $43m of Series A financing — led by the Bill Gates-founded Breakthrough Energy Ventures — which will enable the company to bring its cost-cutting Pivot e-SAF platform to market.

Lydian says the technology will reduce e-SAF plant capital costs by more than 50% compared to competing technologies, “and creates a commercially viable pathway for synthetic fuels to compete with biofuels on price within this decade”.

The start-up’s two-step Pivot technology has been designed to be paired with on-site electrolysers and powered by intermittent renewable energy, meaning it can use hydrogen as it is produced, removing the need for H2 storage buffers. The hydrogen is then combined with captured CO2 to produce syngas, which is then converted into synthetic jet fuel that can be used by existing aircraft.

Lydian describes its syngas production technology as the cheapest and most efficient on the market, and its fuel synthesis unit as “a modified Fischer-Tropsch process with unprecedented performance” thanks to its proprietary reactor and catalyst.

The whole system comes as a turnkey, standardised package that is ten to 100 times smaller than gas-fired reformers and eliminates the need for syngas compressors, gas separation units and primary heat exchangers.

“Pivot represents a fundamentally different approach to synthetic fuel production," said Lydian CEO Joe Rodden. “By designing every part of the system for lower capital costs, greater operational flexibility, and faster deployment, we’ve created a platform for commercially competitive synthetic fuel projects.

“This financing gives us the resources to bring that vision to market.”

The company explains that the Pivot platform “combines Lydian’s proprietary reactor technologies, catalysts, process design, software, and balance-of-plant into standardized, factory-built modules that reduce project complexity while improving economics”.

Breakthrough Energy Ventures’ chief investment officer Carmichael Roberts added: “Decarbonizing aviation will require advanced fuels that compete on cost, work within today’s aviation infrastructure, and deliver the performance flyers and airlines expect.

“Lydian is taking on that challenge with a purpose-built approach to synthetic aviation fuel production. Its Pivot platform combines strong technical innovation with a practical path to better project economics, offering the aviation industry a low-carbon fuel capable of cost-competitive, commercial-scale production.”

Lydian already operates a one-tonne-scale pilot plant at its Boston R&D facility and is now advancing plans for a commercial demonstration facility in 2028, with a first full-scale commercial deployment planned for 2030.

Other investors in the Series A financing round included AP Ventures, Builders Vision, Congruent Ventures, Galvanize, Grok Ventures, Overture, Union Square Ventures and Voyager Ventures.