faqs

What can I use the ethanol for in practical terms?

What are the current Biofuel mandates for the USA and EU?

How much bioethanol is used today in the USA and in Europe?

What is the Gallagher Review?

How does the Gallagher review affect LanzaTech?

How are you different from corn ethanol?

What effect does the LT process have on the environment?

What is biomass syngas?

I want to work for LT. Who can I talk to?

 

 

What can I use the ethanol for in practical terms?
Ethanol is a high-octane premium fuel. A blend of 10% ethanol and 90% gasoline, or E10, is approved for use in every vehicle sold in the U.S.; about one-third of America’s gasoline contains some ethanol.

Ethanol can also be used as a substitute for gasoline. In the U.S. it is sold in blends of up to 85% (E85). Gasoline, the remaining 15%, is needed to help the fuel ignite in cold weather. In very cold weather, higher proportions of gasoline may be needed. Ethanol at these higher blends should not be used in conventional vehicles but only in flexible fuel vehicles (FFVs), which are designed to run on any combination of ethanol and gasoline up to E85. 

What are the current Biofuel mandates for the USA and EU?

Congress passed energy legislation, known as the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007, which raises standards for vehicle fuel economy and mandates that U.S. transportation fuel include 21 billion gallons of advanced biofuels by 2022 and 2 billion gallons as soon as 2012.

The EU has approved a binding biofuels mandate of 10% by 2020. The binding character of this target is appropriate subject to production being sustainable, second-generation biofuels becoming commercially available and the Fuel Quality Directive being amended accordingly to allow for adequate levels of blending.

How much bioethanol is used today in the USA and in Europe?
In the USA today the gasoline market is around 142 billion gallons and bioethanol usage around 9 billion gallons (around 6.5%). In Europe bioethanol usage is around 3%.

What is the Gallagher Review?
The Gallagher review was commissioned by the independent UK Renewable Fuels Agency (RFA) for the UK Government in response to global concerns about energy security, rural development and climate change.
The key conclusions of the review are as follows:

1. The introduction of biofuels should be slowed until effective controls are in place to prevent land use change and higher food prices.
2. There is a future for a sustainable biofuels industry but creating the policy right framework is challenging and will take time.
3. Current policies, if left unchecked, will reduce biodiversity and may even cause greenhouse gas emissions rather than savings. More caution and discrimination are needed in the feedstock used to produce biofuels.
4. Increasing demand for biofuels contributes to rising prices for some food commodities, notably oil seeds, that has a detrimental effect on the poor.
5. Biofuels production must target idle and marginal land, and the use of wastes and residues. This will avoid indirect land use change and reduce competition with food.
6. Specific incentives are needed to encourage advanced technologies that utilize feedstock grown on idle and marginal land.

Professor Gallagher said, 'Our review makes clear that the risks of negative impacts from biofuels are real and significant, but it also lays out a path for a truly sustainable biofuels industry in the future.'

How does the Gallagher review affect LanzaTech?
LanzaTech uses waste gases from Industry and does not use food crops as its feedstock. Concern in the USA was further raised with the paper by Searchinger who asserted that US biofuels production on agricultural land displaced existing agricultural production, causing land-use change leading to increased net greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.  The LanzaTech Process does not affect agricultural land, the cost of food commodities, or increase net GHG emissions.

How are you different from corn ethanol?
LanzaTech’s process varies significantly from the traditional corn-based ethanol process. Corn ethanol is produced via the fermentation of sugars. Corn kernels are broken down into sugars through milling and hydrolysis operations. LanzaTech's ethanol is produced by the LanzaTech process. The key to LanzaTech’s proprietary technology is a microbial catalyst that can convert carbon monoxide to ethanol. Gas-to-fuel conversion with microbes has been under development for the last two decades. The commercialization barrier for these other processes has been the requirement for high amounts of hydrogen in the input gas stream. Elevated levels of hydrogen are not a feature of steel mill waste gases. LanzaTech therefore appears to have a window of opportunity not captured by competitors.

What effect does the LanzaTech process have on the environment?
Capturing the large volume of CO (destined to become CO₂ once released into the atmosphere) emitted by industry for fuel production provides a net reduction in fossil carbon emissions. The use of low carbon fuels to displace petrol also reduces localized pollution from transport, and has a positive influence on public health and thus national productivity. Specifically, E10 petrol blends (10% ethanol in petrol) have been shown to reduce smog formation (the American Lung Association credits ethanol-blended petrol with reducing smog-forming emissions by 25% since 1990), and toxic exhaust emissions (CO emissions by as much as 30%, toxic content by 13% (mass) and 21% (potency), and tailpipe fine particulate matter (PM) emissions by 50%).

What is biomass syngas?
LanzaTech is able to use waste cellulosic biomass (woody biomass) and municipal waste as a feedstock to produce synthesis gas through the gasification process which breaks down the chemical bonds in the biomass. The LanzaTech process is feedstock agnostic-it can use a variety of feedstocks that are available in high volumes, are low value and are non food.

I want to work for LanzaTech. Who can I talk to?
We have a fantastic team here at LanzaTech. We will post openings in the Employment section of the website.