A New Zealand clean tech company has successfully used its gas fermentation technology to make a chemical building block used in polymers, plastics and hydrocarbon fuels.LanzaTech chief executive Dr Jennifer Holmgren said her company is the first to show
A New Zealand clean tech company has successfully used its gas fermentation technology to make a chemical building block used in polymers, plastics and hydrocarbon fuels.
LanzaTech chief executive Dr Jennifer Holmgren said her company is the first to show the chemical 2,3-Butanediol (2,3-BD) can be produced using fermentation from gases.
Conventional approaches for the production of polymers and plastics require chemical building blocks normally prepared from the cracking of petroleum or through fermentation of sugars.
However, LanzaTech’s process uses non-food, low value gas feed stocks, including industrial waste gases such as those produced by steel mills, oil refineries, coal manufacturing, syngas from landfill waste and reformed natural gas.
LanzaTech is now able to offer an integrated waste gas to fuels and chemicals technology that is both economically and environmentally sound,” Dr Holmgren said.
“Commercial viability of novel routes requires the integration of diverse approaches. This development means our process can deliver considerable financial returns from the sale of high value products while curbing industrial greenhouse gas emissions.”
