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Carbon monoxide has been the global warming bogeyman. Happily, a New Zealand company has developed a process that uses genetically engineered microorganisms to eat away carbon monoxide. The result: ethanol, and other useful plastics and solvents.
LanzaTech isn’t the first company to use this process, but the company has announced an agreement to build plants in China, at a steel mill and coal-fueled power plant. According to the release, the research center will “focus of developing important complimentary process technologies, like product separation, water conservation and process integration.” The CEO of LanzaTech, Dr. Jennifer Holmgren, says that about 30 billion gallons of fuel per year are available from steel plants worldwide.
Carbon can be converted into fuel for jets and diesel engines. It shouldn’t be a surprise that this plant has opened in China, a growing world power. The country has been growing their waste-to-energy industry in an effort to reduce the impact of the manufacturing sector on the environment. Other countries may be worse pollutants than we are, but that doesn’t mean our efforts should be any less wavering. Here are a list of companies involved in alternative fuel technologies.
