30 December 2016
DETAILS
Carbon recycling company,
LanzaTech has been selected by
the Department of Energy’s Bioenergy Technologies Office
(BETO) to receive a $4M award
to design and plan
a demonstration-scale facility
using industrial off gases
to produce 3M gallons/year
of low carbon jet and diesel fuels.
The facility will recycle industrial waste gases
from steel manufacturing
to produce
a low cost ethanol intermediate “Lanzanol”.
Both Lanzanol and cellulosic ethanol
will then be converted to jet fuel
via the “Alcohol to Jet” (ATJ) process
developed by
* LanzaTech and
* the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL).
The ATJ technology was initially developed
with DOE funding by PNNL and subsequently
scaled-up by LanzaTech
to produce 4000 gallons of sustainable jet fuel
from Lanzanol and other sources,
as well as 600 gallons of diesel fuel,
for fuel quality testing, certification
and a proving flight with Virgin Atlantic.
LanzaTech is currently building
its first commercial ethanol facilities
using waste gases, including
one in China with China’s largest steel company,
* Shougang,
and
one in Belgium with the world’s largest steel manufacturer,
In the DOE funded project, LanzaTech will work with
ArcelorMittal to evaluate US opportunities
for leveraging this expertise
to demonstrate an entirely new pathway
to low carbon fuels from industrial wastes
that are either flared or underutilized.
To demonstrate process versatility,
* ethanol from other waste gas streams
will be converted, including
* cellulosic ethanol produced
via fermentation of biomass syngas
by Aemetis (Nasdaq: AMTX).
Ambitech, an Illinois-based engineering company,
will be LanzaTech’s engineering partner
with additional engineering contributions from Aemetis.
Other project partners include
PNNL;
technology providers Petron Scientech,
CRI Catalyst Company,
Nexceris and Gardner Denver Nash;
Michigan Technological University,
who will be evaluating the environmental footprint
of the fuels being produced;
and Audi, who will support by evaluating
diesel and gasoline fuel properties.
In addition the project has received support from
Airlines for America (A4A) and
the Commercial Aviation Alternative Fuels Initiative (CAAFI),
an aviation industry consortium focused on
the near-term development and commercialization
of sustainable alternative jet fuel for the aviation enterprise.
Jennifer Holmgren,
LanzaTech CEO
“Economics and sustainability are key to realizing
the potential of alternative aviation fuels,”
“Jet fuel accounts for as much as
40% of an airline’s operating costs and
the sector has made substantial commitments
to reduce their CO2 emissions by 2025.
So fuels must address both of these needs
to succeed at commercial scale.
Thanks to the Department of Energy, the partners
in this project will
accelerate the commercial production
of low cost, low carbon jet,
gasoline and diesel in the United States.”
WWW.CHEMWINFO.COM BY KHUN PHICHAI
