NZ microbe to produce ethanol from Chinese pollution

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A New Zealand biotech firm is set to use its patented microbe technology to convert the polluting byproducts of one of China's biggest coal producers into ethanol.

Auckland-based LanzaTech has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Henan Coal and Chemical Industrial Corporation, a China Fortune 500 company, to produce ethanol and other chemicals through its biological fermentation process.

Ethanol produced through the process can then be used in the production of biofuel. Freya Burton, of LanzaTech, said the process involved the firm's patented microbe - basically a bacteria that feeds off waste gases produced by mining processes.

The microbe uses the gases as a source of carbon, turning the carbon into valuable chemicals such as ethanol.

"You can look at it almost like a brewery fitting on to the [mining] site," she said.

Burton said most other biological fermentation processes used sugars as their source of carbon, which meant land was needed to grow the sugar, as well as other costly infrastructure.

"We eliminate the need for land and water and the infrastructure to bring things to the site," she said.

"We just fit [the technology] on to the site that's already producing the feedstock - the gas - and we're using that as a resource."

Burton said the microbe created by LanzaTech was safe, like yeast, and had been cleared by the World Health Organisation.

"It's not a Frankenstein bug or anything."

The memorandum of understanding was signed during a ceremony held in the capital of Henan province, Zhengzhou. LanzaTech hoped to have a demonstration facility for its technology open at the Chinese site by next year, Burton said.

She added that the Kiwi firm hoped to be producing chemicals in China commercially by 2013.

Up until now LanzaTech has been a purely research firm and has not commercialised its technology.

Chief executive Jennifer Holmgren said the agreement with Henan Coal demonstrated China's commitment to develop clean sources of energy.

Henan Coal was ranked as China's second largest coal company in 2009.