Auckland-based clean technology company LanzaTech announced today that it has secured $US18m from investors led by Chinese venture capital firm Qiming Ventures.The funds will be directed towards commercialisation of LanzaTech's proprietary technology for
Auckland-based clean technology company LanzaTech announced today that it has secured $US18m from investors led by Chinese venture capital firm Qiming Ventures.
The funds will be directed towards commercialisation of LanzaTech’s proprietary technology for producing fuel ethanol from steel mill gases.
The company aims to have a pre-commercial plant operational in 2011, with plans to quickly scale to a commercial facility producing over 200 million litres of ethanol per year.
Qiming Ventures founder and managing director Gary Rieschel said in a press release today that the LanzaTech technology represents a great opportunity for China.
“The significance of its technology means that fuel can be produced with no impact on food supply or land use,” he said.
“Using industrial waste gases curbs GHG emissions and so maintains manufacturing sustainability in China.”
LanzaTech recently signed a deal with Chinese steel and iron conglomerate Baosteel and the Chinese Academy of Sciences to commercialise its technologies for producing fuel ethanol from steel mill gases.
The deal was finalised during a dinner hosted by LanzaTech at the New Zealand Pavilion at the Shanghai World Expo.
LanzaTech technology uses proprietary bacteria to convert industrial waste gases into fuel ethanol and has successfully run a pilot plant at NZ Steel at Glenbrook in Auckland since 2008.
Traditional technologies are restricted to the use of food resources for ethanol production.
