Wellington
Yesterday New Zealand, today and tomorrow the world…..literally for clean technology company
The Auckland-based firm that uses proprietary bacteria and fermentation to produce usefulproducts such as ethanol from industrial gas waste streams, is on a heck of a roll.
Having tested and partly scaled up Auckland University laboratory methodology at the GlenbrookSteel Mill, the venture-capital backed company (including USA-based Khosla Ventures) doesn’t seemto be able to stop signing deals.
It has just put pen to a memorandum of understanding with
In the middle half of last year LanzaTech signed key technology development partnership dealswith China's Baosteel, Henan Coal and Chemical Industrial Corporation and the Chinese Academy ofSciences.
India's crude oil imports are soon expected to be more than 80% of its total needs, and thenation's biofuels policy is to increase the use of alternate renewable fuels from sustainable,non-food sources. The law new requires oil companies to blend petrol with up to 5% ethanol.
LanzaTech has been increasing the products produced by its specially-selected (and patented)bacteria, using smoke-stack waste gas streams as a source stock.
It recently announced the bacterial production of 2,3-Butanediol (2,3-BD), a key building blockin polymer, plastics and hydrocarbon production.
Late last year LanzaTech and its senior management were ranked as one of the globe's top 100clean tech companies. (See sticK story here:
The company's on a rapid growth path, ticking all the boxes that venture capitalists (amongothers) love to see in estimating future earnings potential.
The waste gas streams that its technology utilises would otherwise be a pollutant, andincreasingly governments around the world are legislating (and offering incentives for) clean techsolutions, particularly from non-food based resources.
Just as importantly, there's huge scale in the world's clean energy requirements, and there's noshortage of industrial waste gas streams (i.e. 'smoke stacks') for it to, almost literally, plug itstechnology into.
The recent LanzaTech deals won't be the last.
Watch their space.
If they're not already the darlings of all who like their energy clean and strongly green-tinged,they soon will be.