Unreasonable Impact: Recycling Carbon From a Liability to an Opportunity: Q&A With LanzaTech
by Brittany Lane
Originally posted on Unreasonable Impact, created with Barclays
Global energy consumption is projected to increase 48 percent by 2040. According to NASA, current carbon dioxide levels in the air are at their highest in the past 650,000 years. With a growing demand for energy coupled with unprecedented emissions of this greenhouse gas, we’re trending toward a precarious future.
How do we ensure that economies thrive and that everyone receives the benefits of modern energy without devastating the planet in the process?
Founded in 2005, LanzaTech is commercializing a technology that captures carbon-rich emissions before they escape from the flumes of steel mills, oil refineries, and chemical plants. Then, their patented anaerobic microbes (or “bugs”) convert this waste into fuels like ethanol and into new products like plastics and rubber.
