LanzaTech wins USD-4m DOE grant for clean fuel technology

Sep 23, 2013 - New Zealand green technology firm LanzaTech said Friday it had secured a USD-4-million (EUR 3m) grant from the US Department of Energy (DOE) for the design of small bioreactors that will convert waste methane into low-carbon fuels.

Using the company's gas fermentation technology as basis, it will collaborate with The City College of New York (CUNY), Louisiana State University (LSU) and Michigan Technological University to design bioreactors that can process a number of waste gases. More specifically, the partners will focus on waste methane gases and will develop new smaller-scale bioreactors to process these into low-carbon fuels and chemicals.

The ultimate goal of the new technology will be to cut the volume of waste methane emissions from remote oil wells, coal seam and coal-mine gases as well as landfill biogas. In addition, the DOE funds will help boost the throughput of LanzaTech’s bioreactor.

The financing was awarded through the DOE’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) and is part of the latter’s USD-34-million Reducing Emissions using Methanotrophic Organisms for Transportation Energy (REMOTE) programme. The scheme aims to cut the cost of transformational bioconversion technologies needed for the production of transportation fuels.

LanzaTech has two pilot plants in China for converting waste flue gas from steel factories into ethanol. The two facilities, each with a capacity of 100,000 gallons (379,000 litres) per year. Full commercial-scale production is slated to start next year.

(USD 1.0 = EUR 0.738)

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