Digital Products
by Tsvetana Paraskova – May 2, 2024, 6:00 PM CDT
- A US-based biotechnology company has discovered a way to use bacteria to turn carbon emissions into ethanol and other chemicals.
- LanzaTech, which has been operating on a commercial scale since 2018, not only captures carbon gases at industrial sites, but also transforms them.
- The main advantage of carbon-eating bacteria converting carbon gas into ethanol is that they do not compete with food sources such as corn and sugar beet for ethanol production.
US-based biotech company uses carbon-eating bacteria to convert emissions from steel mills, refineries and other polluting industrial processes into ethanol and chemicals, reducing carbon emissions and contribute to the production of recycled and sustainable products.
Lanza Techhas been operating at commercial scale since 2018 and not only captures carbon gas at industrial sites, but also uses bacteria in bioreactors to convert carbon gas into fuels and chemicals. These recycled products directly replace unused fossil carbon in consumer products and sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), the company said.
Carbon recycled into clothing and aviation fuel
LanzaTech gives captured carbon a new life as SAF, textile fibers, packaging or household cleaning products.
“LanzaTech’s carbon recycling technology is like retrofitting a brewery to a source like a steel mill or a landfill, but instead of using sugar or yeast to make beer, the pollutants are converted into fuels or chemicals by bacteria. ,” the biotech company says.
“Carbon dioxide is found in almost every steel mill and refinery. It can also be made from garbage,” said Jennifer Holmgren, CEO of LanzaTech.wall street journal.
The company partners with major airlines, steel manufacturers and fast fashion companies to support SAF and clothing production while capturing carbon emissions from hard-to-decarbonize industries such as refining and steel manufacturing.
Last year, steel giants ArcelorMittal and LanzaTechProduction has startedAt ArcelorMittal’s main commercial carbon capture and utilization facility in Ghent, Belgium. The $214 million (€200 million) ‘Steelanol’ facility is the first in the European steel industry to implement technology developed by LanzaTech. The facility that saw it wasFirst industrial production of ethanolIn November, it will capture carbon-rich waste gases from steel production and biologically convert them into advanced ethanol through LanzaTech’s bio-based process. Unlike traditional fermentation, this process ferments gases instead of sugars and uses biocatalysts (bacteria known since the 1990s) instead of yeast.
The main advantage of carbon-eating bacteria converting carbon gas into ethanol is that they do not compete with food sources such as corn and sugar beet for ethanol production. Additionally, the first feedstock can be anything containing high concentrations of carbon dioxide or other carbon-rich gases, making the technology suitable for capturing carbon in refineries and steel mills.
Last year H&MLaunched a sportswear lineThis is in part due to exhaust gases captured through LanzaTech’s bioconversion of carbon into the same building blocks as traditional polyester.
This year, LanzaTech and its partner Technip Energies were recognized by the U.S. Department of Energy asup to $200 millionWe participated in a project aimed at producing sustainable ethylene from captured carbon dioxide.
However, the business that will have the biggest impact on LanzaTech is a spin-off company in which British Airways owner International Airlines Group (IAG) and Suncor Energy will be the other major shareholders, with LanzaTech owning 25%. It is expected to be a Run the Jet. LanzaJet was founded in 2020 to develop his SAF through the commercialization of proprietary, patented Alcohol-to-Jet (ATJ) technology.
Earlier this year, LanzaTech announced:$30 million investmentProvided by Southwest Airlines as part of an agreement to work toward the development of a SAF production facility.
LanzaJet just before signing contract with Southwest AirlinesIt was openedLanzaJet Freedom Pines Fuels, located in Soperton, Georgia, is the world’s first ethanol-to-SAF production facility. The plant has committed to off-take contracts for all fuel produced over the next 10 years.
SAF can reduce CO2 emissions in aviation by up to 80%, says the International Air Transport Association (IATA)To tell.
But even if the government supports research and production, supplies of SAF remain limited.
The amount of SAF that can be obtained from waste is limited, while renewable synthetic kerosene is “relatively far” from commercialization, with costs dependent on the source of CO2 and green hydrogen. But synthetic SAF is also highly scalable and has a much better carbon balance than biofuels, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said in a paper.reportTrack advancements in aviation.
What will happen to the airline industry?ready to cuddleWillie Walsh, executive director of the International Air Transport Association (IATA), said last year that SAF will always be more expensive than petroleum-based jet fuel.
LanzaTech is still struggling financially, even though it already operates several commercial facilities to capture carbon emissions and turn them into useful products. We will not be able to achieve our 2023 revenue forecast;Net loss increasesLast year, we listed our stock on NASDAQ.fell 50%So far this year, investors have shown lukewarm appetite for clean energy technologies as high interest rates make planned projects more expensive.
High interest rates hurt low-carbon technologies
Renewable energy projects and new low-carbon technologies are increasingly exposed to the current high interest rate environment globally.Pace may be slowWood Mackenzie warned about the transition to clean energy in a report last month.
Global monetary policy will remain much higher in the coming decades than the 20-year near-zero interest rate period from 2009 to 2022, WoodMac has announced.Added.
Peter Martin, head of economics at Wood Mackenzie and lead author of the report, said: “This increase in the cost of capital will have a significant impact on the cost and pace of the energy and natural resources industry, particularly the transition to low-carbon technologies. ”.
Written by Tsvetana Paraskova, Oilprice.com
Tsvetana Paraskova
Tsvetana is a writer for Oilprice.com and has over 10 years of experience writing for news outlets such as iNVEZZ and SeeNews.
Related article
Source of this program
“This is a great plugin!”
“A U.S.-based biotech company uses carbon-eating bacteria to turn emissions from steel mills, oil refineries, and other highly polluting industrial processes into ethanol and chemicals to reduce carbon emissions. We are contributing to…”
Source: Read more
Source link: https://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-General/Carbon-Eating-Bacteria-May-Hold-The-Key-To-Decarbonization.html
