Now on Broadway: LanzaTech’s $2.2B SPAC Merger Takes the Advanced Bioeconomy’s Biggest Hit to an Even Bigger Stage

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March 08, 2022

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by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) In Illinois, news arrived that LanzaTech will go public in a merger with the NASDAQ-traded blank check firm AMCI Acquisition Corp II. The deal is reported to value the company at $2.2 billion.

The transaction is expected to raise gross proceeds of approximately $275 million, comprised of AMCI’s $150 million of cash held in trust (assuming no redemptions by AMCI’s public stockholders) and a committed common equity PIPE of approximately $125 million, at $10.00 per share, by investors AMCI, ArcelorMittal, BASF, K1W1, Khosla Ventures, Mitsui & Co., LTD., New Zealand Superannuation Fund, Oxy Low Carbon Ventures LLC, Primetals Technologies, SHV Energy and Trafigura.

LanzaTech, which for many years was voted the #1 in the 50 Hottest Companies in the Bioeconomy, developed bacteria that, initially, could convert carbon monoxide (such as found in steel mill off-gases) into ethanol., It subsequently has developed technology to make a much wider range of industrial chemicals such as polypropylene, and more recently has made significant advances through partnerships with companies such as Twelve to access CO2 as a feedstock. It has become known around the world as a leader in the capture and use of “second chance carbon” and thereby has become perhaps the best known Circular Economy company in the world,.

LanzaTech’s platform takes pollution and recycles it, eliminating single-use carbon. Examples of the uses of the technology include taking steel mill emissions in China and unsorted, unrecyclable household waste in Japan and converting these wastes to ethanol which can be further converted to sustainable aviation fuel or polyethylene for consumer goods. Over 50 chemicals have already been demonstrated, including continuous production of acetone and isopropyl alcohol at pilot scale.

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LanzaTech has steadily been broadening its base of investors, both in terms of sectors and geographically. Last April, we reported that Sinopec Capital announced investment in LanzaTech with a focus on promoting direct production of chemicals from waste carbon.

Back in late 2019, we reported that Novo Holdings made a $72 million investment in LanzaTech’s Series E financing, and Senior Director Anders Bendsen Spohr joined the LanzaTech board. Novo — the parent of both Novo Norsk and Novozymes — is best known for making investments in the therapeutics and pharma side of the bioeconomy. Novo Holdings’ investment expanded expand LanzaTech’s carbon recycling platform and enable LanzaTech to accelerate the commercialization of Carbon Smart products allowing consumers to choose where the carbon in their products comes from, recycled carbon or fossil carbon.

Three LanzaTech projects on the way

1. Project Orchid: The pilot at Freedom Pines which will focus on optimizing CO2 + H2 to ethanol.

2. Project Lotus: The small commercial project with SkyNRG which will use added H2 to convert the CO2 in a raw biogas stream to ethanol enabling conversion of the methane (via syn gas) and the CO2.

3. Project AtmosFuel: A feasibility study in partnership with Carbon Engineering to evaluate directly capturing CO2 from the air and converting it to sustainable aviation fuel READ MORE

LANZATECH NZ, INC., A MARKET-LEADING INNOVATOR IN CARBON CAPTURE & TRANSFORMATION, TO GO PUBLIC THROUGH BUSINESS COMBINATION WITH AMCI ACQUISITION CORP. II (LanzaTech)

Carbon-Transformation Startup LanzaTech is Going Public in $2.2 Billion SPAC Deal-- Company traps waste gas, uses bacteria to turn it into sustainable chemicals and products for customers including Unilever and Coty (Wall Street Journal)

Covington, White & Case Rep Carbon Capture Biz's $2.2B Deal (Law360)

LanzaTech to go public in SPAC deal, valued at $2.2 billion (Reuters)

Lanzatech to go public via business combination with AMCI (LanzaTech/Ethanol Producer Magazine)

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