LanzaTech Announces Datuk Ir. (Dr) Abdul Rahim Hj Hashim, President of Malaysian Gas Association, to Board of Directors

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/lanzatech-announces-datuk-ir-dr-abdul-rahim-hj-hashim-president-of-malaysian-gas-association-to-board-of-directors-2013-03-11

36 Year Veteran of Oil & Gas Industry Will Help Company Accelerate Commercialization of Novel Technology to Convert Unused Gas Streams Into Marketable Commodities 

 

ROSELLE, IL, Mar 11, 2013 (MARKETWIRE via COMTEX) -- LanzaTech, a producer of low-carbon fuels and chemicals from carbon-containing gases, announced the appointment of Datuk Ir. (Dr) Abdul Rahim Hj Hashim, the current President of the Malaysian Gas Association, former Chief Executive of PETRONAS Oil Refinery and a 36 year oil and gas industry veteran to its board of directors. 

"As we take our technology further into the fuel production value chain, Datuk Rahim's extensive leadership experience in the oil and gas industry will be incredibly valuable," said Jennifer Holmgren, CEO of LanzaTech. "In addition to the significant potential to create marketable commodities from industrial waste streams containing carbon monoxide, we are seeing increasing opportunity to leverage our technology with underutilized, or otherwise unusable gas streams." 

Datuk Rahim, the President of the Malaysian Gas Association, began his career in PETRONAS soon after graduating from the University of Birmingham, UK in electrical and electronics engineering. Throughout his 36 years of involvement in the oil and gas industry, he has held a number of high profile positions of increasing responsibility. As Vice President at PETRONAS for 10 years, he covered three different portfolios: Vice President of Human Resource Management for the PETRONAS Group for four years; vice president of the Gas Business for three years and Vice President for Research and Technology for three years. In addition, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of PETRONAS Oil Refinery (Melaka) Sdn Bhd as well as Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Malaysian Refining Company Sdn Bhd (MRC). 

While serving in PETRONAS, he also held several key positions in a variety of gas industry organizations, both in Malaysia and at an international level including serving as President of the Asia Pacific Natural Gas Vehicle Association (ANGVA) and President of the International Gas Union (IGU). A professional engineer, Datuk Rahim serves on the Board of Engineers (BOE), Malaysia and also the Chairman of the Engineering Accreditation Council (EAC) Malaysia. He is also an Associate Member of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers. In 1997, he completed the Advanced Management Program at Harvard Business School. 

"I've been very impressed with the progress LanzaTech has made to date developing and scaling its core technology to convert waste gases into renewable fuels and chemicals," said Datuk Rahim. "I look forward to helping the company extend that platform into new feedstocks, including CO2, methane and other carbon sources as well as new end products." 

In 2012, LanzaTech partnered with PETRONAS to develop new approaches to effectively capture carbon, with an initial focus on using CO2 from a variety of sources including refinery off gases and natural gas wells to produce acetic acid, a high value chemical with applications in the polymers and plastics markets. 

About LanzaTech 

LanzaTech is a leader in gas fermentation technology. It provides novel and economic routes to fuels and high value chemicals from waste gas streams. LanzaTech's unique process provides a sustainable pathway to produce platform chemicals that serve as building blocks to products that have become indispensable in our lives such as rubber, plastics, synthetic fibers and fuels. 

LanzaTech's technology solutions mitigate carbon emissions from industry without impacting adversely food or land security.

Currently commissioning a second pre-commercial facility in China using steel mill off gases for ethanol production, LanzaTech, a company founded in New Zealand, is now a global organization with full commercial operation targeted for 2014. More information is available at www.lanzatech.com

Local businessman testifies before members of Congress

http://www.baxleynewsbanner.com/archives/4383-Local-businessman-testifies-before-members-of-Congress.html

Wednesday, February 20. 2013

 

By Jamie Gardner

Fram Renewable Fuels President Harold Arnold, at the invitation of Congressman John Barrow, testified before the U.S. House of Representatives’ Energy and Commerce Committee’s Subcommittee on Commerce, Manufacturing and Trade on February 14 at the Rayburn House Office Building in Washington, D.C. The hearing, A Nation of Builders: Manufacturing in America, allowed members of Congress to examine manufacturing in America and to garner input from business leaders across the country.

“I’ve seen the great work the folks at Fram Renewables are doing right here in the 12th District of Georgia,” said Congressman Barrow.  “With expansion plans underway, Fram Renewables is creating jobs and pumping life into the economy, both in and around Baxley.  I look forward to welcoming them to Washington, and sharing their story with other members of the committee.”

Congressman Barrow, a member of both the full E&C Committee and CMT Subcommittee, visited Fram Renewables during his 2012 Made in Georgia Tour, and requested their participation in this hearing. The company manufactures and exports wholesale wood pellet fuel to utility companies globally.

Arnold offered his appreciation to the committee for the opportunity to speak and shared news about his company’s successes and future plans. Fram currently exports over 300,000 metric tons of wood pellets to Europe and has plans to increase to more than one million tons exported by 2015.

Arnold praised the U.S. Government for supporting businesses that increase American exports and thanked the government officials for assistance through the small business loan guarantee program. He further added to members of Congress that timely attention to American ports, such as Savannah and Brunswick, is vitally important to exporters as they rely on economical shipping rates to markets around the world.

Appling Pellets, Fram’s Baxley operation, opened for business in 2007 and provides approximately 40 jobs. The initial investment in the Appling facility was $25 million. The Baxley facility produces over 230,000 metric tons of wood pallets annually.

In 2012 the company opened a second facility in Lumber City and invested $10 million in this facility. The Lumber City operation employs 14 and creates 120,000 metric tons of wood pellets. Fram also broke ground on a third facility that will be built in Hazlehurst. The first phase of this project will employ approximately 50 people and require a $60 million investment. Eventually, phase two of this particular project will add another 25 jobs and an additional investment of $30 million. Arnold estimates that indirectly some 400 jobs will be retained or created in the various parts of the wood pellet supply chain.

While Arnold offered some words of praise to the U.S government, others that testified offered opposing views. As an example, one business owner of a steel company told members of congress that the U.S. government’s stringent regulations have been devastating to the steel industry across the country.

Greener planet is goal for 3 startups

http://www.equities.com/news/headline-story?dt=2012-12-16&val=832224&cat=material

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.

LanzaTech to Convert Baosteel Mill Fumes Into Ethanol, CEO Says

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-12-03/lanzatech-to-convert-baosteel-mill-fumes-into-ethanol-ceo-says.html

By Andrew Herndon - Dec 3, 2012 8:00 AM ET

LanzaTech NZ Ltd., a closely held developer of transportation fuels and chemicals from waste industrial gases, plans to begin building next year an ethanol plant at a Baosteel Group Corp. steel mill in China.

The facility will use LanzaTech’s genetically-modified microorganisms to convert carbon monoxide-containing gas into as much as 10 million gallons of fuel-grade ethanol a year starting in 2014, Chief Executive Jennifer Holmgren said by telephone Nov. 30. Financing is being arranged by Baosteel, she said, and wouldn’t disclose the expected cost.

The project is a joint venture with Baosteel, China’s second largest steel manufacturer, and scales up a 100,000 gallon a year demonstration plant the companies installed at one of Baosteel’s mills near Shanghai. Results from that project “have shown that the scaling of the technology has been successful,” LanzaTech, based in Auckland, New Zealand, said in an e-mailed statement.

LanzaTech also has a venture with Shougang Group, China’s fourth-largest steelmaker, and industrial companies in India, South Korea, Taiwan and Japan are evaluating projects with the company. Holmgren told Bloomberg in January she may begin considering an IPO after successful operations of the Baosteel demonstration.

To contact the reporter on this story: Andrew Herndon in San Francisco at aherndon2@bloomberg.net
 
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Reed Landberg at landberg@bloomberg.net