Carbon Capture Technology Gets New Funding
A deal struck between developers LanzaTech and biotechnology company Novo Holdings has seen carbon capture technology get more fuel for its development. For over 15 years, LanzaTech has been developing a range of microbe-based recycling systems that intends to change carbon-based waste into usable ethanol. Among the partnerships the company has managed to create and maintain include, Indian Oil and the Shougang Group of China.
At its current level of production, LanzaTech estimates it may capture the equivalent of 70,000 vehicles on the world’s roads. The final aim for the company is to develop a circular system where the microbes convert waste products into ethanol, which is then used to fuel the same machinery that produced the waste. LanzaTech sees biotechnology as the way for both businesses and governments to aim at reducing carbon emissions.
A Win for Industrial Biotechnology
Industrial biotech has proven that it is capable of dealing with the problem of carbon emissions. The new funding from Novo Holdings also enables LanzaTech to leverage intellectual property held by a subsidiary of Novo Holdings, Novozymes. The result of this partnership should see Lanzatech expanding its production to include more than just ethanol in the future, possibly branching out into other complicated fuel matter. Fuel products that can be utilized in industrial processes are the preferred product.
LanzaTech isn’t the only biotech company looking into utilizing carbon trapping technology to generate new products. Solugen, another biotech company based in Houston, is looking at developing microbes that can create hydrogen peroxide from carbon-based waste. Several companies require hydrogen peroxide as a raw material to fuel their industrial processes, and if Solugen is successful, it might lead to an even further reduction of carbon emissions through fixing. Carbon fixing both aids industrial development and helps to deal with the world’s looming global warming crisis.
