Twelve’s carbon transformation technology replaces petrochemicals in products traditionally made from fossil fuels with its CO2Made carbon-negative chemicals and materials, as well as carbon-neutral fuels. LanzaTech’s carbon recycling Pollution to Products technology uses nature-based solutions to produce ethanol and other materials from waste carbon sources.

“Today, 100 percent of new PP in use worldwide is made from petrochemicals. We now have a way to produce this critical material from CO₂ and water instead of from fossil fuels, with no tradeoffs in quality, efficacy or performance. Replacing all of the world’s fossil PP production with CO2Made PP would reduce carbon emissions by an estimated 700 million t/y or more,” said Twelve chief science officer Etosha Cave.

The firms have been awarded a $200,000 grant for their work from Impact Squared, a $1.1 million fund that was designed and launched by Barclays Bank and Unreasonable, a part global community and part investment company that describes itself as a catalytic platform for entrepreneurs tackling some of the world’s most pressing challenges.

In July, LanzaTech announced it had teamed up with cleantech company Carbon Engineering on a project to create sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) from CO₂. Project AtmosFUEL, which also includes airlines British Airways and Virgin Atlantic, will investigate the feasibility of a large-scale, commercial air-to-jet facility in the UK that would produce more than 100 million liters per year of SAF. The aim is for the facility to be operational by 2010.

Author: Elaine Burridge, Freelance Journalist