By Julie Wernau, Chicago Tribune McClatchy-Tribune Information Services
Dec.
16--If the glut of companies billing themselves as "solutions"
providers is any indication, the world has no shortage of problems.
Green
tech companies take on some of the most complicated, difficult problems
to solve. They tend to be problems created by our mere existence, chief
among them our massive demand for energy. The more we rely on energy to
power our electronics, our vehicles and our lives, the more pollution
we churn into our land, water and air.
The
Tribune checked in with three local green tech startups at various
stages of development. They haven't changed the world yet, but they're
working on it.
COMPANY: LanzaTech
PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: Global warming, a huge challenge as energy demand is expected to double within 40 years.
FUNDS RAISED: $100 million
It may sound like sci-fi, but LanzaTech produces gas-eating "bugs" that don't require oxygen to survive.
In
April, the company's microscopic bacteria began ingesting carbon
monoxide from a steel mill in China. Carbon monoxide goes in one end of
the bacteria and ethanol comes out the other.
With
a few genetic tweaks, the bug can produce a wide range of fuels and
chemicals from gases that companies spend money to get rid of. The idea,
says Jennifer Holmgren, the company's chief executive, is to trap nasty
gases that float from steel mills, power plants and chemical factories,
turning them into products that are useful and profitable.
The
company recently inked a deal with Petronas, the national oil company
of Malaysia, to develop a modified version of the bug that takes in
carbon dioxide and produces acetic acid, a chemical companies need to
produce polymers used in plastics.
"Rather
than trying to sequester carbon deep into the earth, we will 'bury' it
in a chemical," Holmgren said. "In this way, companies can not only
comply with emissions reduction requirements, but also generate revenue
along the way."
When
Holmgren talks about the technology's potential, she pulls up a map of
the world, showing partnerships and agreements the company has with
companies from Boeing Co. in Chicago and Kansas-based Invista, the
world's largest nylon producer, to Indian Oil Co. in New Delhi and
Mitsui & Co. Ltd. in Japan.
Out
of the company's various projects, the carbon monoxide-eating bacteria
are the furthest along in the path toward commercialization. This month,
LanzaTech finished a demonstration project for China's largest steel
manufacturer, Baosteel, at a plant near Shanghai.
LanzaTech
successfully produced the equivalent of more than 100,000 gallons of
ethanol per year from just a fraction of the carbon monoxide the company
creates in the steel-making process.
"You're
literally driving for miles watching this steel mill," Holmgren said,
explaining its vast size -- and its potential to produce hundreds of
millions of gallons of ethanol per year.
The
technology creates a financial incentive to trap the gas rather than
flare it, a common practice that produces carbon dioxide, which
contributes to global warming. Through a series of pipes, the gas enters
a vessel filled with the organism, which is floating in water. Fuel
comes out the back end and is pumped through a distiller to create pure
ethanol.
Because
of the success of that demonstration, the steel company has ordered the
first of what will eventually be three or four units, each about $80
million, that are each expected to produce 30 million to 50 million
gallons of ethanol per year. Each unit pays itself back in under five
years, Holmgren said.
"We don't want it to be green for green's sake. If it is, no one is going to use it," she said.
With
140 employees worldwide, LanzaTech doesn't have any revenues to report
yet. Holmgren said LanzaTech expects to grow to profitability between
2013 and 2015.
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