LanzaTech vs Aurora Algae: Who's the Best?

Background: This is a first round, International Regional match-up between #4 seed Amyris and #13 seed Aurora Algae in the 2011 Transformative Technologies tourney, from Biofuels Digest.

Voting: Open to all Biofuels Digest subscribers. Voting links are in the Biofuels Digest daily newsletter. To subscribe (free), visit here.

The winner gets: Most votes advances to the second-round (round of 32), and a shot at the Biofuels Sweet Sixteen.

The loser: Goes home.

Laurels: LanzaTech is the 31st ranked company in the 2010-11 50 Hottest Companies in Bioenergy poll. Aurora Algae is currently unranked.

The match-up: A technology from Down Under (New Zealand) seeking to commercialize in China and India, vs a US technology seeking to commercialize Down Under (Australia)

In September 2010, Aurora Biofuels confirmed its emergence as Aurora Algae. The company also said that it would be transitioning from a pilot technology development to full-scale commercialization of the Company’s proprietary algae products, including high concentration eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA Omega-3 fatty acids), high-density proteins, fish meal and renewable fuels. The company’s key technology – an optimized strain of salt-water algae that is lighter in color than wild-type algae—allows deeper penetration of sunlight, thereby extending the zone for algae reproduction and increasing yield. The company said it has also adapted a technique used in the waste-water industry for low-cost algal harvesting.

The LanzaTech process increases industrial energy efficiency by capturing waste gases (CO, CO2) and converting them to valuable fuels and chemicals through its microbial gas fermentaion technology. The LanzaTech process is feedstock agnostic and is not dependent on any one resource for gases. The LanzaTech process has already been proven utilizing steel mill off gases as well as synthesis gas derived from biomass.  This means that all synthesis gas is a suitable feedstock including gases derived from coal, petroleum coke, natural gas, municipal solid waste etc.