LanzaTech – a company that reuses CO2 into useful products – a process known as carbon recycling, has received $4.1 million in funding from the US Department of Energy (DOE). The company and its partners – the University of Michigan (UM) and Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), will explore converting carbon dioxide into ethanol.
The process the company utilizes involves using renewable hydrogen to capture and convert CO2 into fuels and chemicals. When commercially deployed, the recycling process requires only carbon-free renewable energy, water and CO2.
The CO2 could be coming from corn grain ethanol refining or direct air capture. The company claims the technology can replace 30% of crude oil used today in the industry for the making of different products like cleaners, perfumes, textiles, and packaging for example. That would lead to a global reduction of 10% of CO2 emissions.
“Moving to an industry based on refining CO2 rather than oil allows us to harness the very basis of the climate crisis as a climate solution,” said LanzaTech CEO Jennifer Holmgren.
LanzaTech calls the products that are made from recycled CO2 “CarbonSmart” as they reflect the choice of utilizing a waste material into something valuable. Those CarbonSmart products can be further recycled using LanzaTech’s chemical recycling technology. This way carbon can be infinitely recycled, locking it into the circular economy.
The company was previously given another funding from DOE for the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory’s Co-Optimization of Fuels & Engines (Co-Optima) initiative. LanzaTech received up to $300,000 to research and develop gasoline boiling range fuel with advanced fuel properties.
LanzaTech is an experienced carbon recycling company, implementing CO2 into its supply chain and product offerings. With the world moving towards decarbonization efforts, the company proposes a viable solution to reducing excess carbon dioxide emissions from the atmosphere.
