LanzaTech: Biofuels Digest’s 2014 5-Minute Guide
Company description:
LanzaTech has developed a fully sustainable integrative gas to fuels and chemicals platform that has no impact on food, water security or high biodiversity land use.
The proprietary gas-to-liquid platform produces fuels and high value chemicals such as 2,3-butanediol (2,3 BDO) and acetic acid from a variety of waste gas resources.
The production of ethanol and 2,3 BDO is significant for the alternative aviation fuels industry as LanzaTech has successfully converted these products into fully synthetic jet fuel via catalytic and thermochemical routes, together with a conversion partner. 2,3 BDO can also be converted into butadiene, a high-volume intermediate for production of plastics, rubber and nylon.
LanzaTech’s technology platform uses different microbial strains to produce products from gases that contain carbon monoxide (CO)-with or without hydrogen (H2)- or gases containing carbon dioxide (CO2) and H2 providing a novel approach to carbon capture and reuse.
LanzaTech’s biological microbes can utilize the lowest cost, most readily available gas resources including waste industrial flue gases from steel mills, processing plants and refineries; syngas generated from any biomass resource (such as municipal biowaste, organic industrial waste, and agricultural waste); coal derived syngas; and reformed natural gas are all resources for the LanzaTech gas fermentation process.
Rankings
Landed #2 in the 50 Hottest Companies in Bioenergy 2013-14
#4 in the 30 Hottest Companies in Renewable Chemicals 2013-14
Biofuels Digest Awards
2013 New Partnership of the Year (biobased chemicals & materials) — LanzaTech, Evonik
For the second year in a row, LanzaTech nabs a partnership award. This time, for a three year research cooperation agreement with Evonik which will see Evonik combining its existing biotechnology platforms with LanzaTech’s synthetic biology and gas fermentation expertise for the development of a route to bioprocessedn precursors for specialty plastics from waste derived synthesis gas.
In this route, microorganisms placed in fermenters are used to turn synthesis gas into chemical products. Synthesis gases comprise mainly of either carbon monoxide or carbon dioxide and hydrogen and can come from a variety of gasified biomass waste streams including forestry and agricultural residues and gasified municipal solid waste.
“Industrial biotechnology is one of the core competences of Evonik. It enables new approaches to specialty chemicals and processes,” explains Prof. Stefan Buchholz, the head of Creavis. Creavis, Evonik’s strategic innovation arm, is committed to developing alternative bio-based pathways for the production of such specialty chemicals, to not only reduce dependence on fossil fuels, but also reduce the greenhouse gas emissions associated with their manufacture. “The use of renewables and specific waste streams is one of the main focuses of our research and development work, and LanzaTech offers an additional interesting approach,” says Buchholz.
2012 Partnership of the Year Award: BaoSteel, LanzaTech
In 2012, LanzaTech and Baosteel reported their jointly-owned 100,000 gallon per year (300 tons) demonstration plant, located at a Baosteel steel mills outside Shanghai, China has met and exceeded milestones – the companies are reporting that the plant achieved higher productivity than design.
A full scale commercial facility with Baosteel is planned for 2013 – and LanzaTech is currently commissioning a second pre-commercial facility, also in China, based on a JV with China’s Shougang Group, aimed also to follow with a commercial production facility in 2013.
Now, let’s put that in perspective. A few years back, people thought that the idea of making renewable fuels from steel mill off-gases was, well, lunacy. Couldn’t be done at all, much less on a timeline, at costs that afforded some payback at the end of the day. Well, here we are in 2012, with deonstration of the technology completed, running – and commercial deployment scheduled for next year. Amazing – and a tribute to what partnership between visionary technology and feedstock suppliers can mean.
Profiles
Profiled in: 12 Bellwether Biofuels Projects for 2013
Won Biofuels Digest’s 2012 Partnership of the Year Award: BaoSteel, LanzaTech
Featured in: What’s China up to now? Making fuel from waste steel gas, for one.
Featured in: China Steel, LCY Chemical form JV to commercialize LanzaTech advanced biofuels technology
Major Investors:
Dialog Group Berhad, K1W1, Khosla Ventures, Malaysian Life Sciences Capital Fund (MLSCF),PETRONAS Technology Ventures, Qiming Venture Partners
Top Milestones for 2009-13
- Series B and C investment: $18 million and $55.6 million respectively.
- Construction of a 100, 000 gallons per year demonstration plant in collaboration with BaoSteel
- Partnership agreements in place globally including eight Global Fortune 500 Companies across multiple sectors (steel, coal, oil refining, aviation, biomass/MSW and chemicals)
In December 2013, Evonik Industries and LanzaTech have signed a three year research cooperation agreement which will see Evonik combining its existing biotechnology platforms with LanzaTech’s synthetic biology and gas fermentation expertise for the development of a route to bioprocessedn precursors for specialty plastics from waste derived synthesis gas.
In November 2013, Beijing Shougang LanzaTech New Energy Science & Technology Co. Ltd earned a sustainability certification from the Roundtable on Sustainable Biomaterials Services Foundation for the joint venture’s waste steel mill gas to biofuel plant. It is the first RSB-certified biofuel plant in China, and the first to receive this certification for industrial carbon capture and utilization.
In September 2013, LanzaTech’s 300 metric ton/year gas-to-ethanol pilot plant in Jingtang, northern China that was halted in February due to a technical glitch with its blast furnace came back online in August. During the next few months, auditors are expected to visit the plant in order to seek sustainability certification to allow access in those markets.
In June 2013, Siemens and LanzaTech signed a ten-year co-operation agreement to develop and market integrated environmental solutions for the steel industry worldwide. The collaboration will utilize the ground-breaking fermentation technology developed by LanzaTech transforming carbon-rich off-gases generated by the steel industry into low carbon bioethanol and other platform chemicals. Siemens and LanzaTech will work together on process integration and optimization, and on the marketing and realization of customer projects.
In March 2013, Jindal Steel and Power Ltd is in talks with Lanzatech to implement the company’s unused blast furnace-to-fuel technology as JSPL’s facility in either Angul in Odisha or Raigarh in Chhattisgarh by end of 2015. The deal is meant to be closed within the next three to four months. When the project comes online, the 150,000 metric tonne facility it will be the second such project in the world, following a pilot project in China. Production could reach 500,000 tonnes by 2018.
Major Milestone Goals for 2014-15
- First commercial facility in operation at a steel mill in China; producing 30 million gallons of ethanol per year
- Demonstrate production of C4 chemicals
- Initiate 2 additional commercial facilities
Business Model: Two business models: technology licensor and part owner-operator by way of JVs. Business model for any specific project determined by location and customer preference. Either model capital light as plant fully funded by customer/JV partner.
Competitive Edge:
Global platform for sustainable gas fermentation.
Waste gases from Industry
The LanzaTech process is the only process that converts waste gases to fuels and chemicals, from any source of CO or CO2. LanzaTech has proven its gas fermentation process using industrial waste gases with its proprietary microbe. Waste gases have never been used before as a nutrient source as the conditioning process makes it economically unfeasible. LanzaTech’s microbe does not require the gases to be conditioned and so they are able to use this available low cost waste product as a nutrient for growth. A unique strength of LanzaTech is its in-house synthetic biology capability, which allows for engineering and further development of its microbe, enabling the expansion of a diverse product slate into higher value chemical markets going forward.
Fuels and chemicals through carbon capture, reuse and sequestration
LanzaTech’s strategy is to diversify its product portfolio beyond ethanol to key chemical intermediates and drop in aviation fuels through developing key technology partnerships. Diversification mitigates market risk by ensuring that the company has commercially viable options to meet changing demands.
Through LanzaTech’s process, carbon (as CO or CO2) is successfully captured and safely sequestered into new chemical products, such as butadiene and isobutylene. Isobutylene is one of the most important petrochemical building blocks that can be converted into fuels, plastics, organic glass and elastomers. It can also be directly converted to polymers and jet fuel relevant C8-C12 molecules.
LanzaTech is working with Global Bioenergies, whose core technology consists in a proprietary artificial pathway allowing the direct fermentative production of isobutylene from renewable resources. This pathway has so far been expressed in a classical production microorganism using carbohydrates such as glucose as feedstock. LanzaTech’s unique microbes, present a novel pathway that can use nonfood resources as feedstocks, specifically carbon monoxide gas, for isobutylene production.
Butadiene is used extensively in production of rubbers and other polymers and produced by dehydration of 2,3 BDO or directly by fermentation of CO. Production of butadiene is seen as critical, as it is typically produced as a by-product of ethylene derived from cracking naphtha. However, natural gas availability and pricing is driving displacement of cracker derived C2’s, therefore reducing C4 olefin availability. LanzaTech’s joint development project with INVISTA will accelerate the 2,3 BDO optimisation work as well as develop a direct single step process to produce butadiene directly through a process of gas fermentation
LanzaTech’s unique microbes, through an effective biological carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) technology provide a novel path to chemical production with sound economics.
Research, or Manufacturing Partnerships or Alliances.
Research: Chinese Academy of Sciences, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Swedish Biofuels, NICE, Tsinghua University, US Department of Energy, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), Michigan Technological University, Delaware University, US Department of Transportation – Federal Aviation Administration and Volpe Center
Manufacturing partnerships: Baosteel, POSCO, Jindal Steel, LCY Chemicals, Indian Oil Company, Henan Coal and Chemical Company, Petronas: feedstock providers.
Mitsui and Harsco: strategic alliances,
Virgin Atlantic, Boeing: Aviation
INVISTA: Chemicals
Stage:
Demonstration operating in China
2nd Demonstration ETA Q4 2012
Website URL: www.lanzatech.com
Project information
Waste Gas to Fuel : LanzaTech Pilot Plant
| Location: | Auckland, New Zealand |
| Materials or products produced ethanol | Ethanol |
| Capacity (Millions of US gallons per years) | 15, 000 gallons per annum |
| Year, month in service (planned or projected) | 2008 |
| Status: (Open, Under Construction, Planned) | Open |
| Feedstock: | Steel mill off gases |
| Processing technology (e.g. advanced fermentation, enzymatic hydrolysis) | Gas Fermentation |
| Project notes, if any | Pilot Project |
| EPC partner, if any |
Waste Gas to Fuel: LanzaTech BaoSteel New Energy Co., Ltd.
Shanghai, China
| Location: | Shanghai, China |
| Materials or products produced ethanol | Ethanol |
| Capacity (Millions of US gallons per years) | 100,000 gallons per annum |
| Year, month in service (planned or projected) | 2012 |
| Status: (Open, Under Construction, Planned) | Open |
| Feedstock: | Steel mill off gases |
| Processing technology (e.g. advanced fermentation, enzymatic hydrolysis) | Gas Fermentation |
| Project notes, if any | Demonstration Project |
| EPC partner, if any |
Waste Gas to Fuel: Beijing Shougang LanzaTech New Energy Technology Co., Ltd.
| Location: | Caofeidian, China |
| Materials or products produced ethanol | Ethanol |
| Capacity (Millions of US gallons per years) | 100,000 gallons per annum |
| Year, month in service (planned or projected) | 2012- planned |
| Status: (Open, Under Construction, Planned) | Under construction |
| Feedstock: | Steel mill off gases |
| Processing technology (e.g. advanced fermentation, enzymatic hydrolysis) | Gas Fermentation |
| Project notes, if any | Demonstration Project |
| EPC partner, if any |
Biomass Syngas to Fuel: LanzaTech Freedom Pines Biorefinery
| Location: | Soperton, Georgia |
| Materials or products produced ethanol | Ethanol |
| Capacity (Millions of US gallons per years) | 10 M gallons per annum |
| Year, month in service (planned or projected) | 2013 planned |
| Status: (Open, Under Construction, Planned) | Planned |
| Feedstock: | Biomass syngas |
| Processing technology (e.g. advanced fermentation, enzymatic hydrolysis) | Gas Fermentation |
| Project notes, if any | Commercial Project |
| EPC partner, if any |
MSW Syngas to Electricity and Fuel with Concord Enviro Systems PVT Ltd
| Location: | Aurangabad, India |
| Materials or products produced ethanol | Ethanol |
| Capacity (Millions of US gallons per years) | 100,000 gallons per annum |
| Year, month in service (planned or projected) | 2013 planned |
| Status: (Open, Under Construction, Planned) | Planned |
| Feedstock: | Municipal solid waste |
| Processing technology (e.g. advanced fermentation, enzymatic hydrolysis) | Gas Fermentation |
| Project notes, if any | Demonstration Project |
| EPC partner, if any |
Product information
Product Brand Name:
TBC
Product Description:
Fuel grade ethanol, 2,3 BDO, butadiene, acetic acid, isobutylene
Product Applications:
Ethanol: Fuel blending; conversion to drop-in jet fuel.
2,3 BDO/butadiene: conversion to hydrocarbon fuels, conversion to butadiene for rubbers, plastics and nylon market
Acetic acid: low cost production from LT, enables economic conversion to lipids and subsequent conversion to jet fuels.
Isobutylene: Can be converted into fuels, plastics, organic glass and elastomers. It can also be directly converted to polymers and jet fuel relevant C-12 molecules.
Unique Features (i.e.,what separates this product from the competition, whether bio-based or incumbent fossil-based products – e.g. cost, performance features).
LanzaTech is the only technology to have a diverse range of products derived from a wide variety of waste gases, including those from industry. These products can be produced through a process that requires no dedicated feedstock infrastructure and uses resources that are low cost and readily available. Gas resources can be fed directly into the LanzaTech process at source. This gas would otherwise be flared as a GHG-effectively making LanzaTech derived products novel ways unique stores of waste carbon.
Wholesale or retail Product price:
n/a
Parity price, e.g. competitive with $XX oil: (if applicable, in BPOE, US$)
Ethanol produced via LanzaTech technology when processing steel mill off-gases is cost competitive with ethanol produced via existing sugar and/or starch fermentation technologies.
CCOP/Gal for China Corn model is $2.33, US corn $1.81-$3.19, Brazil sugarcane $1.44
LanzaTech model using China BOF gas $1.28 and using China coal syngas $1.67
Category: 5-Minute Guide
