New Zealand company LanzaTech, has announced it has secured US$3.5M in Series A funding, led by Khosla Ventures and supported by two existing New Zealand based investors. This funding will support further technology development, establishing a pilot plant, engineering work to prepare for commercial-scale ethanol production and positions the company to raise significant capital in the near future.
This technology could produce 50 billion gallons of ethanol from the world's steel mills alone, turning the liability of carbon emissions into valuable fuels worth over $50 billion per year at very low costs and adding substantial value to the steel industry. The technology will also be a key contributor to the cellulosic biofuels business as it can convert syngas produced through gasification into ethanol.
There is so much experimentation being done out there right now that it is hard to say what will be physically possible and what will be economically possible. This is an approach to ethanol that I could support...if it is economical and if the process is not an energy hog. I like the idea of finding ways to utilize both waste materials and wasted energy.
I recently had the opportunity to listen to a speech on biofuels by Jay Lehr of the Heartland Institute. My opinion of using corn as the feedstock for ethanol production remained unchanged-I still don't like it. If the science can advance enough to make the processes economical, I could get on board with using crop residue and some other types of biomass to make cellulosic ethanol, however. One attractive feature of cellulosic ethanol is that the production would create a byproduct that could be used to partially fuel the plant. I am not completely opposed to ethanol, just mandates of ethanol useage, heavily subsidized ethanol production, and energy inefficient ethanol production. Smart, economical ethanol could make me a fan.
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