Sydney-based e-fuels company Aeon Blue, which is raising $4 million to finance its first pilot project, has been named the Startup Venture of the Year at the Canadian Cleantech Awards.

CEO Lark Meadows and CTO Deóis Ua Cearnaigh, siblings originally from Texas, received the award Wednesday evening at the ceremony in Vancouver. The awards were hosted by Foresight Canada, which promotes climate-tech innovation.

Aeon Blue is developing technology that delivers sustainable e-fuels while simultaneously capturing carbon dioxide and generating high-value co-products. Its integrated hydrogen and carbon capture technology uses wind energy, seawater, and captured carbon dioxide to make cost-efficient e-fuel. The company plans to launch its first pilot project, which will produce jet fuel from sea water and CO2, in Cape Breton later this year.

“Let’s keep it simple: sea water in; jet fuel out,” said Meadows in her pitch last week at the 2026 NACO Summit in Ottawa, where Aeon Blue pitched as one of the “Moonshot Ventures”, a selection of leading startups from across Canada.

Research so far has shown that for every tonne of jet fuel the process produces, 37 tonnes of CO2 are either removed from or never injected into the atmosphere, said Ua Cearnaigh

The thing about the technology that the founders emphasize is that the white papers conclude that Aeon Fuel technology can produce carbon-negative fuel at the same price as natural gas. Put another way, they foresee a day when Canadian industry can access a reliable source of fuel, without the environmental damage caused by hydrocarbon extraction or worries about supply chain disruptions, and without paying more than the current systems.

“By bridging the gap between legacy industrial needs and net-zero targets, Aeon Blue is scaling a global solution for gigaton-level carbon removal while ensuring critical freshwater resources remain protected for local communities,” said a statement from Foresight Canada announcing the award winners.

Meadows is now raising capital with a target of $4 million to finance the first phase of its pilot project, in which a single reactor will be developed at Sydport in Sydney with a capacity to produce one tonne of jet fuel per year. The company has so far raised $295,000 from Cape Breton Capital as well as angel investors.

In laying the foundations for this pilot project, Aeon Blue has partnered with Eskasoni First Nation, whose site in Sydport has been earmarked as the location of this first reactor. The parties are working toward a long-term partnership, said Meadows, which they hope will result in the first clean fuel company owned by a Mi'kmaw community.

Phase II of the project will require $28 million in capital and result in a larger reactor capable of producing 30 tonnes of jet fuel per year.  They’re targeting a 2028 launch for this phase.

“Over the next year and a half – that’s when we’re going to experience more growth,” said Meadows.

If these two pilot projects are successful, Meadows and Ua Cearnaigh have set their sights on a commercial project, which would employ 100s of people during construction and employ 80 people in operations once the facility is operational.

Meadows added that Aeon Blue’s process produces side industrial quantities of products as well, such as hydrogen, carbon dioxide and ultra-pure water, and these substances could be used as feedstock for other industries, including complementary e-fuel businesses.

The co-founders kicked off their fundraising mission by pitching at the NACO Summit and its Moonshot Ventures event, which Meadows called “amazing.”

She said: “The exceptional thing was the NACO staff. We’ve never been in an event where they were so supportive of our goals.”