First in Technology, First in Commercialization, First in the Hearts of the Bioeconomy: a Presidents’ Day Look at LanzaTech

February 22, 2023

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by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) ... The timelines of the company’s development may have been pushed back here and there by pandemic, but the patience of LanzaTech’s worldwide cadre of fans was rewarded when news arrived from the Financial Temples of New York City that AMCI Acquisition Corp. II and LanzaTech announced that AMCI’s stockholders have approved their business combination, and that the company has entered into a $100 million forward purchase agreement with ACM ARRT H LLC to enhance financial flexibility.

AMCI and LanzaTech also announced that they have received additional PIPE investments from existing and new PIPE investors. The total additional PIPE investment is $5 million, increasing the previously announced common equity PIPE to $185 million.

The feint beyond ethanol

In recent years, most of the company’s messaging has been about the need to conserve carbon as a precious resource. Carbon’s been put up there with gold, palladium and the Mona Lisa — to be revered, and conserved. We’ve also heard much about the impressive achievements of the LT bug in producing this material for lululemon or that material for someone else. It’s all been very diverting, and they racked up so many bonus points in the game of “They Said It Couldn’t Be Done” that LanzaTech might as well be a meme somewhere inside of Ready Player One. Another good future name for the company — Player One.

But make no mistake, no matter how interesting the chatter on carbon and chemicals, for some time to come the workhorse molecule of Planet LanzaTech will be ethanol. Which is actually a good thing.

Some molecules are described as the Swiss Army Knife of refining. Ethanol is a caravelle; that remarkable ship that allowed Europeans to discover the New World.

A Master Maker of Molecules

In the economy writ large, LanzaTech, no matter what it makes, has become our most distinguished maker of molecules.

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You will find biotechnology deeply embedded in the company, but not in its feedstock — it doesn’t use plants, it doesn’t take up land. They find and use scrap carbon.

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The critique goes that using fossil carbon for good purposes empowers companies to generate fossil carbon for bad ones. I’ve never bought into that way of thinking.

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A partnership with Indian Oil for SAF, where we spotted LanzaJet in the front seat but LanzaTech CEO Jennifer Holmgren applauding happily from the sidelines. A $31M grant from the UK for the DRAGON project. An isoprene partnership with Sumitomo. A next-gen reactor in place in Edmonton. A massive Carbon Capture project with Brookfield Renewables. Ethylene from CO2, down in the New Zealand labs, something to inspire your inner Haka. New centers of excellence with a Who’s Who of partners. A tie-up with Givaudan, The news flow goes on and on and on. READ MORE