A Yeast-Like Bacteria Can Cut Carbon Emissions While Creating Sustainable Aviation Fuel and Sneakers

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🗞️ Driving the news: LanzaTech, a biotechnology firm, has developed a method to convert carbon emissions into ethanol using Clostridium autoethanogenum, a bacteria found in rabbit feces
• This technology, applied at steel plants and oil refineries, can significantly reduce CO2 emissions while producing sustainable aviation fuel and eco-friendly plastics

🔭 The context: Founded in 2005 by biologists in New Zealand, LanzaTech focuses on non-food sources for biofuel production to avoid competition with food supplies
• The company's technology utilizes industrial carbon waste, transforming it into valuable ethanol and proteins, promising a substantial reduction in greenhouse gases

🌍 Why it matters for the planet: LanzaTech's technology can achieve up to an 85% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions when the ethanol is used for aviation fuel, with a 30% reduction in carbon emissions from steel production alone, addressing significant sources of industrial pollution

⏭️ What's next: Despite financial struggles and a recent drop in its stock price, LanzaTech is expanding operations with new projects and partnerships
• It has secured significant funding from the U.S. Department of Energy and is aiming to broaden its impact globally with potential for high scalability

💬 One quote: "We are a hard-to-decarbonize sector so we need all solutions," said Jonathon Counsell, group head of sustainability at IAG

📈 One stat: LanzaTech's technology is deployed in four steel plants in China and has reduced particulate emissions by more than 95% when used in aviation fuel

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