(447a) Completing the Carbon Cycle through Gas Fermentation of Carbon Residues to Fuels and Chemicals

Increasing worldwide demand for biofuels from renewable feedstocks is driving the rapid development of processes to produce low-carbon fuels and chemicals with lower greenhouse gas emissions compared to conventional petroleum derived products.  LanzaTech’s novel gas fermentation technology can economically convert gas containing carbon monoxide and any amount of hydrogen to fuel and chemical products.  Initially developed to process industrial residue gas streams such as waste gases from steel mills, refineries, or petrochemical plants, the robust fermentation process can also utilize on-purpose syngas from the gasification of biomass, municipal solid waste, refinery residues (such as petcoke, vacuum residues, and heavy oils) and coal.  The LanzaTech process can convert these gas streams into energy rich fuels or chemicals such as ethanol, acetic acid, or 2,3-butanediol, among others. A key differentiator of this biotechnology offering is the ability to produce a wide product slate from the same feedstock by utilizing different families of biocatalysts.

LanzaTech’s innovative gas fermentation biotechnology is described including potential applications in chemical, petrochemical, refinery, gas-to-liquids, and industrial plants (such as coal and steel). LanzaTech is a global company with biorefinery projects underway in the US, China, India, and New Zealand.  LanzaTech has successfully completed two demonstration projects in China, (100,000 gallons ethanol/year scale), with Baosteel near Shanghai and Shougang near Beijing.  LanzaTech’s Freedom Pines Biorefinery in Soperton, Georgia currently has an ongoing integrated gasification and fermentation project utilizing woody biomass feedstocks. It is shown that through these projects across a wide range of industries that the gas fermentation technology effectively completes the carbon cycle by capturing residue or underutilized gaseous carbon with a renewable microbial biocatalyst for the production of fuels and chemicals.