Posted on 24 Apr 2015
Chicago, Illinois (April 22, 2015) Taiwan’s largest integrated steel maker, China Steel Corporation (CSC), has announced formal Board approval of a 1400M TWD ($46M USD) capital investment in a LanzaTech commercial ethanol facility. This follows the successful demonstration of the revolutionary carbon recycling platform at the White Biotech (WBT) Demonstration Plant in Kaohsiung using steel mill off gases for ethanol production.
LanzaTech’s gas fermentation process uses proprietary microbes to capture and reuse carbon rich waste gases, reducing emissions and pollutants from industrial processes such as steel manufacturing, while making fuels and chemicals that displace those made from fossil resources.
In November 2012, China Steel Corporation (CSC) and LCY Chemical Corporation formed a joint venture, White Biotech (WBT), as part of a Green Energy Alliance with LanzaTech. The resulting demonstration plant met or exceeded all ethanol production milestones and the CSC Board have formally approved the capital to move to commercial scale. A 50,000 MT (17M Gallons) per annum facility is planned for construction in Q4 2015, with the intention to scale up to a 100,000 MT (34M Gallon) per annum commercial unit thereafter. Initial product focus will be industrial ethanol and gasoline additives, with plans for increased product diversity utilizing LanzaTech’s unique microbial capability.
“LanzaTech will help create a more sustainable future by recycling carbon from the steel mill and enabling green growth through production of useful everyday products. We will have to work even closer to complete this important project,” said Dr. Jo-Chi Tsou, Chairman of CSC.
“CSC has long been a champion of utilizing new technologies to create a better future and we are proud to help make this a reality,” said LanzaTech CEO Jennifer Holmgren. “We need to keep fossil resources in the ground and carbon recycling is one way we can achieve this. If we are to keep within our global carbon budget we need all technologies to contribute and, more importantly, we need forward looking industries and organizations, such as CSC, to bring these technologies to market.”
