It is now possible to utilize bacteria that have evolved to feed on contaminated air in a recycling system to transform greenhouse gases into valuable goods. This is after LanzaTech's recycling system employed a beige liquid that fizzed away in several glass vats.
According to RFI, the mixture contains billions of hungry bacteria trained to eat air pollutants. This is the first stage in a recycling system that turns greenhouse gases into valuable goods.
LENA, IL - OCTOBER 4: Norm Crain displays an ear of corn and a beaker of 200-proof ethanol produced at the Adkins Energy ethanol production facility on October 4, 2004, near Lena, Illinois. The facility uses corn to produce 40 million gallons of ethanol a year and 132 thousand tons of animal feed, a byproduct of ethanol production. An average bushel of corn produces 2.7 gallons of ethanol. Currently, the United States has 3.3 billion gallons a year; by 2012, it is estimated production will exceed 5 billion gallons a year.
Converting Using Alcohol
Three Chinese enterprises are already using LanzaTech's unique microbes for commercial purposes to turn waste emissions into ethanol after the company obtained licensing agreements.
Through partnerships with well-known companies like Zara and L'Oreal, this ethanol is utilized as a chemical building block for consumer goods like plastic bottles, athletic clothing, and even gowns.
"I wouldn't have thought that 14 years later, we would have a cocktail dress on the market that's made out of steel emissions," said microbiologist Michael Kopke, who joined LanzaTech a year after its founding (per Phys.org).
The only American firm among the 15 contenders for the Earthshot Prize, an honor for environmental achievements established by Prince William of Britain and broadcaster David Attenborough, is LanzaTech. On Friday, five winners will be declared.
In addition to creating 50 million gallons (190 million liters) of ethanol, LanzaTech claims that, to date, it has prevented 200,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide from entering the environment.
Kopke admits that compared to the amounts required to tackle climate change, there is a drop in the ocean.
However, after investing 15 years in creating the system and demonstrating its viability on a broad scale, the firm is now looking to increase its ambition and the number of participating factories.
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How Alcohol Works to Convert Pollution
Reports said about 200 individuals work at LanzaTech, which likens its carbon recycling process to a brewery but utilizes carbon pollution and bacteria to produce ethanol rather than sugar and yeast to make beer.
Years ago, the bacterium employed in their procedure was discovered in rabbit droppings.
According to Kopke, the business deployed it in industrial settings to optimize it there, "almost like an athlete that we trained,"
Corporate clients with large, several-meter-tall replicas of the vats back in Chicago are delivered bacteria in the form of a freeze-dried powder.
The corporate clients who funded the construction of these plants will subsequently benefit from the sale of ethanol and the goodwill generated by reducing pollution from their primary industries.
Two ferroalloy factories and a steel factory are the clientele in China. Six other locations are being built, including ones for an ArcelorMittal factory in Belgium and the Indian Oil Company in India.
According to Zara Summers, vice president of science at LanzaTech, the method is incredibly adaptable since the bacteria can consume CO2, carbon monoxide, and hydrogen.
Commercializing Microbes
The same Phys.org report mentioned that LanzaTech established a different business, LanzaJet, to use ethanol to produce "sustainable aviation fuel," or SAF.
The aviation industry, which uses a lot of fuel and is trying to go green, faces a significant hurdle in increasing worldwide SAF production.
By 2030, LanzaJet wants to produce one billion gallons of SAF annually in the United States.
The fuel generated from greenhouse gas emissions doesn't need the use of agricultural land, in contrast to bioethanol made from wheat, beets, or maize.
The next hurdle for LanzaTech is to commercialize microbes that can create compounds besides ethanol.
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