LanzaTech to make bio-based 2.3 butanediol from carbon monoxide

ERJ staff report (DS)

Auckland, New Zealand - US- based bio-tech company LanzaTech has said it will make bio-based 2,3 butanediol for commercial use by 2014. The material can be used as a feedstock to make butadiene for use in rubber molecules.

LanzaTech said it uses carbon monoxide generated as waste gases from steel mills and other industrial process as the source material. This is fed to a proprietary micro-organism in the clostridium family. Those organisms them produce both ethanol and 2,3 butanediol in proportions up to 50-50.

Although 2,3 BDO was used in the very early stages of synthetic rubber production, the naphtha-based route has been little used due to difficulties in separating out the BDO from other components. LanzaTech claims it has a solution to that problem based on thermocatalysis.

Lanzatech has pre-production units operating at steel mills in New Zealand and also in China

Lanzatech placed an article from ICIS on its website. Details from that article have been used to compile this news report.

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Press clipping from LanzaTech