ENERGY BIOFUEL:A NEW ZEALAND- based biofuel company claims to have developed the world's first microbe that can convert waste gases from steel mills into high-octane ethanol.
Lanzatech’s process captures steel mill waste gases such as carbon monoxide and removes particulates, nitrogen and oxygen before sending the resulting gases to a bioreactor. The company’s proprietary microbes then ferment the carbon component of the gas to produce ethanol.
The cleanest and most efficient way of fuelling the fermentation process is from biomass such as municipal waste, waste wood or organic industrial waste such as old tyres.
The chemical bonds of the biomass are broken down by gasification, making up to 80 per cent of the resulting energy available for fermentation.
Successful trials at a pilot facility near Auckland have yielded low-cost ethanol, the company says, and this has attracted attention from large steel producers in China and the US.
Lanzatech eventually aims to license its technology to firms in the industrial bio-commodities market, according to co-founder Sean Simpson.
He estimated that the world’s steel mills generate enough carbon monoxide emissions to produce 50 billion gallons of ethanol annually. Its technology would prevent the gas from entering the atmosphere at a rate of half a tonne for each tonne of steel produced, Simpson added.
