Stafford Sheehan

Stafford W. Sheehan is an American scientist and entrepreneur, a co-founder and chief technology officer of Air Company. He developed a heterogeneous catalysis process to convert carbon dioxide into ethanol that his company has used to produce vodka and other consumer products as well as jet fuel.

Early life and education
Sheehan became interested in computer programming as a teenager. He originally intended to major in computer science with a minor in Arabic at Boston College but changed his concentration after taking a chemistry class his freshman year. As an undergraduate researcher in 2009, he was part of a team that developed a titanium nanostructure that provides greater conductivity and could be used to create more efficient solar panels.

Sheehan graduated with a degree in Chemistry from Boston College in 2011. He was subsequently a National Science Foundation graduate research fellow at Yale University where he worked on the development of gold-coated nanoparticles for solar cells and catalysts for artificial photosynthesis. He earned his Ph.D. in physical chemistry from Yale in 2016. His thesis titled "Photon Management and Water Oxidation Catalysts for Artificial Photosynthesis" was awarded Yale's Richard Wolfgang Prize which is given each year to the best doctoral theses by graduating chemistry students.

Career
Sheehan founded Catalytic Innovations in 2015. The company was spun out from his research at Yale. Early in his research into artificial photosynthesis, he had discovered an Iridium-based catalyst which can also be used as an anti-corrosion coating for oil pipelines or to prevent lead from getting into wastewater during the metal refinery process.

In 2017, Sheehan co-founded Air Company with Gregory Constantine who he met the year before on a trip for Forbes 30 Under 30. Sheehan serves as chief technology officer of the company which produces ethanol-based products using heterogeneous catalysis to hydrogenate carbon dioxide (CO2) to produce ethanol (C2H5OH). Unlike other catalysts used in hydrogenation, this catalyst contains no precious metals and produces ethanol sufficiently pure enough for use in beverages, foods, cosmetics, cleaning products, and fragrances with oxygen and water as the only byproducts.

The company released its first product, Air Vodka, in November 2019 in the New York City area. On July 27, 2022, a US Air Force drone fighter jet at the Hsu STEM Range in Laurel Hill, Florida, took the first unmanned flight powered by fuel produced entirely from carbon dioxide using Sheehan's technology. Air Company has entered into deals with companies such as JetBlue and Virgin Atlantic, and Boom Supersonic to supply them with jet fuel for future commercial flights.