Auckland’s LanzaTech wins Richard Pearse award

LanzaTech of Auckland was awarded the prestigious Richard Pearse award for “Innovation and Excellence in Aviation” during the Aviation Industry Association Awards in Rotorua in early August.
The award is named in honor of Richard Pearse of Waimate, New Zealand’s pioneer aviator and inventor. The Richard Pearse award recognizes outstanding innovation which helps the development of the aerospace industry in New Zealand.
The LanzaTech Process converts carbon monoxide into valuable fuel and chemical products. The process is robust and is flexible to the hydrogen content in the input gas; it is also tolerant of typical gas contaminants.
Categorized as a WHO-risk 1 organism (the same category as baker’s yeast), the proprietary microbe in the LanzaTech Process is naturally occurring and acts as a biocatalyst which allows production of both fuels and chemicals from industrial waste gases. LanzaTech is the first company in the world that has developed a bio-catalytic toolkit for a gas fermentation microbe.
The company’s technological advances will allow it to move beyond ethanol and 2,3BDO production to other fuels and chemicals such as butadiene. These fuels and chemicals serve as the building blocks for products such as diesel fuel, jet fuel, plastics and olefins. (August 23, 2012)