Aeon Blue Inc., the Cape Breton green fuel and carbon capture startup, has raised $195,000 in equity funding from the Cape Breton Capital Group to help the company establish its first facility in 2027.

Based in Sydney River, Aeon Blue specializes in the production of sustainable eFuels by harnessing wind energy and seawater. The company’s technology and processes aim to integrate hydrogen production with carbon capture technology, using wind energy, seawater, and atmospheric carbon dioxide to create cost-efficient eFuel.

"Cape Breton Capital Group is more than just an investor in Aeon Blue; they are a true catalyst for climate tech growth in Nova Scotia,” said Aeon Blue CEO Lark Meadows in a statement. “Their deep understanding of the local ecosystem and strategic guidance is helping us transform our vision of sustainable fuels and carbon removal into reality. They're the kind of partners who go above and beyond to ensure lasting impact in the community."

Meadows and her brother Deóis Ua Cearnaigh founded Aeon Blue in the U.S. in 2018 with the goal of producing a cost-competitive eFuel. Meadows had previously been the CEO of a Los Angeles non-profit that advocated for gender rights. Cearnaigh, the company’s Chief Technology Officer, has studied renewable fuel science over three decades at such institutions as Yale University and Texas Tech.

They moved their company to Cape Breton to capitalize on the abundant wind and seawater resources, and met members of the Cape Breton Capital Group through the Verschuren Centre in Sydney.

Aeon Blue, a graduate of the Plug and Play accelerator, has designed a saltwater electrolyzer that integrates both hydrogen production and direct air capture. That means it can produce a synthetic fuel that can replace gasoline, diesel or other products while capturing carbon dioxide and storing it underground. With some fuels, the process can capture six times as much CO2 as the eFuel produces when it burns, says the company.

As detailed in an article in Forbes in 2020, Aeon Blue believes it can compete on cost because its saltwater electrolyzer is “100 percent interruptible.” The system operates off wind or solar energy, but it only needs to run when the wind is blowing or the sun is shining. That means its facility will not need expensive batteries to store energy from these intermittent sources, thus reducing production costs.

The company has said on social media that it is pre-selling Geologically Stored Carbon (GSC) credits for the facility, which should be operational in 2027. It added the facility will remove 6,800 tonnes of CO2 annually, storing it safely for more than 1,000 years, and create local jobs with priority hiring for Mi'kmaq First Nations.

In December, Aeon Blue said it had passed the preliminary assessments of Puro.Earth, a Helsinki-based platform for promoting carbon-negative facilities (That is, they capture more CO2 than they produce.). The company is now listed on the Puro.Earth site as a future facility.