Commercial Carbon Recycling with Biology
Our way of life is built on carbon–from the clothing we wear and the food we eat to the packaging that keeps our food and medical supplies safe to the fuels that power our air travel–but we need a more sustainable way to source it to protect the future of our planet.
LanzaTech takes carbon capture a step further by transforming it into something valuable and useful at scale that directly replaces virgin fossil carbon in consumer goods and sustainable aviation fuel alike. We’ve been operating at commercial scale since 2018 and have proven again and again that our biorecycling approach is playing a pivotal role in keeping our planet livable for the long term by enabling a circular carbon economy.
CARBON CAPTURE & UTILIZATION
We partner energy-intensive industries to capture and process carbon-rich gases before they enter the atmosphere and cause environmental harm. We then give that carbon a second life by partnering with suppliers and brands to integrate recycled carbon into their supply chains to make new products and materials.
Leadership
Dr. Jennifer Holmgren
/
CEO
Jennifer is the Chief Executive Officer of LanzaTech. Jennifer has over 20 years of experience in the energy sector including a proven track record in the development and commercialization of fuels and chemicals technologies.
Leadership
Aura Cuellar
/
President
As LanzaTech’s President, Aura Cuellar leads all revenue-generating business lines, bringing extensive experience from her 25-year career at Shell where she most recently served as Vice President of Energy Transition. With a background in environmental engineering and global business strategy, coupled with experience living and working across multiple continents, Aura brings a unique perspective to addressing climate change and delivering growth. Her leadership focuses on cultural transformation, innovation, and social equity, while her commitment extends beyond her professional role as she serves as Honorary Consul to the Kingdom of The Netherlands in Houston and advocates for women in the energy industry.
THE PROCESS
LanzaTech is changing how people think about carbon by creating opportunities to recycle a “liability” into valuable and sustainable new products.
Capturing Carbon,
Creating Value
We’re working toward a future in which above-ground carbon is treated as a valuable resource rather than a throwaway liability. Imagine: recycled greenhouse gas emissions power airplanes, shampoo bottles are yesterday’s steel mill emissions, used car tires become next year’s sofas, and apparel is regenerated after it’s reached the end of its useful life rather than ending up in landfill.
Our technology is making that vision a reality.
Our carbon recycling technology works like retrofitting a brewery onto an emissions source like a steel mill or a landfill site, but instead of using sugars and yeast to make beer, emissions are converted by bacteria into fuels and chemicals.
Environmental Impact
Life cycle analysis (LCA) is essential for understanding the environmental benefits of LanzaTech’s technology. LanzaTech has developed in-house LCA expertise and engages in collaborations to understand and develop recommendations for methodological approaches which vary by region. We regularly work with specialists around the world including: The European Commission (EC)/ Joint Research Council (JRC), Roundtable for Sustainable Biomaterials (RSB), International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), International Sustainability & Carbon Certification (ISCC), California Air Resources Board (CARB), Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), Michigan Technological University (MTU), Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and others.
LCAs consider the impacts of producing and using all energy and chemical inputs into the final product(s). Third party analyses are used wherever possible and are available to our customers. We also conduct LCAs for peer review, using in-house engineering data and emission factors from appropriate published LCA-specific databases and third-party market projections.
Here you can find an example of a peer reviewed LCA for carbon negative chemicals production, published in Nature Biotechnology.
Here is an example of a third party LCA for high purity ethanol which includes transportation to Europe. As more facilities using our technology come online globally, the impact of transportation on the LCA will be greatly reduced. LanzaTech continues to conduct LCAs on each facility, exploring different methodologies and parameters. We are currently completing an internal review of an LCA of the same facility for fuel grade ethanol to the factory gate. This will be published after it has been reviewed by a third party. Current estimates of the resulting LCA show a significant reduction relative to high purity ethanol being shipped to Europe.
