Circular carbon economy- Brewing pollution into ethanol using gas fermentation | Ep. #35

<p>This week on <a href="https://www.circularbusinesspodcastindia.com/" rel="ugc noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Circular Business Podcast</a>'s weekly gupshup with <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/thecircularcollective/">The Circular Collective</a> we explore a fascinating technology by <a href="https://www.lanzatech.com/">LanzaTech</a> who are pacing the world towards a Circular Carbon Economy.</p> <p>They have developed a sophisticated brewery, a gas fermentation process that turns pollution and emission from factories into fuel that powers cars and soon airplanes. To put that into perspective, visualize a beer fermentation process..now instead of converting sugars and yeast to ethanol, the company uses a biological catalyst to ferment waste gas emissions into ethanol. AMAZING right?</p> <p>Their technology has the potential to displace 30% of crude oil use today and reduce global CO2 emissions by 10%. So how do they do it?</p> <p>A bacteria found in the gut of a rabbit can now help cars &amp; airplanes run in a more eco-friendly way.</p> <p>The bacteria, identified by <a href="http://www.lanzatech.com/">LanzaTech</a>, helps turn factory carbon emissions, a.k.a. Pollution, into ethanol.</p> <p>For a few decades, Ethanol has been blended with gasoline or petrol to reduce the amount of fuel used by cars.</p> <p>Today, Ethanol is <a href="https://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/ethanol.shtml">typically made</a> from corn, sugar cane or grasses, which take a lot of land to grow. So just imagine the amount of efficiency that this technology brings in just by making ethanol by capturing pollution.</p> <p>They have been working with Virgin Atlantic since 2011, to formulate that jet fuel made from carbon waste gases. The first batch of this sustainable jet fuel was used on a commercial flight for the very first time in 2018– It was the Virgin Atlantic’s VS16 flight from Orlando to London Gatwick, operated by a Boeing 747 aircraft.</p> <p>Airlines is one such industry which is tough to decarbonize and with this i