Uploaded by ThisIsVirginAtlantic on 11 Oct 2011
We are announcing a world-first, low-carbon aviation fuel with half the carbon footprint of the standard, fossil-fuel alternative. The partnership represents a breakthrough in aviation fuel technology that will see waste gases from industrial steel production being captured, fermented and chemically converted for use as a jet fuel. The revolutionary fuel production process recycles waste gases that would otherwise be flared off into the atmosphere as carbon dioxide -- so is the next step forward from our previous biofuels work. We anticipate that within two to three years, Virgin Atlantic will use the new fuel on its routes from Shanghai and Delhi to London Heathrow, as LanzaTech develop facilities in China and India. We also hope that the technology will be retrofitted to UK facilities, as well as other facilities worldwide, enabling us to uplift a significant proportion of low-carbon fuel across the world.
The LanzaTech Process
The LanzaTech Process can convert carbon monoxide containing gases produced by industries such as steel manufacturing, oil refining and chemical production, as well as gases generated by gasification of forestry and agricultural residues, municipal waste, and coal into valuable fuel and chemical products. The robust process is flexible to the hydrogen content in the input gas and tolerant of typical gas contaminants.
The carbon monoxide containing gas enters the process at the bottom of the bioreactor, and is dispersed into the liquid medium where it is consumed by LanzaTech's proprietary microbes as the reactor contents move upward in the reactor vessel.
The net product is withdrawn and sent to the product recovery section.
The product recovery section makes use of an advanced hybrid separation system to recover the valuable products and co-products from the fermentation broth. The water is recovered and returned to the reactor system, minimizing water discharge from the process. The products and co-products are collected for downstream use.
In some cases, these products can be used directly as fuel or chemical products. In many cases it is also possible to convert products from the LanzaTech process in to common chemicals or ‘drop in’ fuels that are normally derived from petroleum.
The LanzaTech process provides a route from waste gases and solids to valuable fuel and chemical products, reusing carbon along the way to minimize environmental impact.
