I just saw this tidbit of information from BIO’s daily newsletter (thanks BIO!) and can’t help but posting it. Unfortunately, I am in a very tight deadline for Tecnon OrbiChem’s Biomaterials newsletter but will soon posts more news that came in the past 2-3 weeks.
The hearing: The House Committee on Energy & Commerce’s Environment & Climate Change Subcommittee held a hearing yesterday, February 6, Clearing the Air: Legislation to Promote Carbon Capture, Utilization and Storage, to discuss the Utilizing Significant Emissions with Innovative Technologies Act, or the “USE IT Act” (H.R. 1166). The legislation supports CO2 utilization and Direct Air Capture (DAC) research, and facilitates the permitting and development of CCUS (carbon capture, utilization and storage) projects and CO2 pipelines.
Who testified: BIO member LanzaTech testified in support of the legislation, explaining how they harness biology to capture waste carbon from industry and turn it into fuels—which they used to power a Virgin Airlines flight from London to Orlando in 2018, the first flight to ever use CCU fuel.
The science: In their process, microbes consume carbon oxide (along with any hydrogen and CO2 present) and, through their own metabolism, synthesize ethanol or other products. The protein-rich microbes can then be converted to nutritional feed.
The application: LanzaTech is already using the technology in the steel sector—redirecting carbon before it ever goes into the atmosphere. The first commercial plant was commissioned in China in 2018; to date, it’s produced over 12 million gallons of low-carbon ethanol from steel mill waste gases, equivalent to avoiding emissions of 60,000 tons of CO2.
Why it matters: The USEIT Act’s investment in research and development that specifically focuses on carbon capture and utilization is a significant step in advancing this tremendously important avenue for mitigating carbon emissions from the industrial sector. By supporting technologies like LanzaTech’s, we have a practical way to support low-carbon fuel initiatives and clean up emissions from transportation, materials and household chemicals manufacturing, and more.
Watch More:
LanzaTech’s Testimony on February 6, 2020
The testimony states that removal of CO is a major part of carbon removal, and the data are for steel plants. What % of CO is removed and what Z% oc CO2 is removed and what % of each gas is present in the offgas being treated. These questions are trying to ascertain the usefulness of the technology for other sources of CO2.entering the atmosphere.
Posted by Dr. Joseph V. Porcelli, jvporcelli | February 7, 2020, 11:28 am