LanzaTech wins ICIS and Global Cleantech honours

LanzaTech wins ICIS and Global Cleantech honours

Auckland, October 18, 2011 - LanzaTech has taken top honours in two global awards.

In the first, the clean energy technology firm has not only retained its spot in the prestigious Global Cleantech Top 100, but also been named “Company of the Year Asia Pacific” for 2011.

In the second, LanzaTech has been judged to have shown the “Best Innovation by an SME” in the global ICIS Innovations Awards 2011.

LanzaTech’s chief executive Dr Jennifer Holmgren is delighted LanzaTech’s worldwide team has been recognised in both award programmes. LanzaTech is a global entity with industrial and global service provider partners.

“Being named in the Top 100 list for the second year running, and now as Asia Pacific Company of the Year, recognises the potential LanzaTech has to make a real impact on the world’s energy future,” Dr Holmgren says.

“It is particularly significant that the ICIS award comes straight after World Food Day (October 16). It is increasingly vital for the world to produce more energy without threatening food production. LanzaTech’s novel gas-liquid fermentation process produces fuels and chemicals without any impact on the food value chain.”

Environmental considerations played a key part in all the winning entries in the ICIS Awards. John Baker, global editor at ICIS, says this year there was an emphasis on bio-based technologies, designed to replace oil and gas feedstocks in the chemical industry or reduce carbon emissions. No fewer than seven of the 14 short-listed entries involved bio-based technologies.

LanzaTech’s innovation caught the judges' eyes as it successfully incorporates synthesis-gas technology and bioprocessing to give an economically robust route to carbon capture and re-use.
One of the ICIS Awards judges, Dr Gregg Zank who is chief technology officer at Dow Corning, said LanzaTech’s technology had the potential to be disruptive in the long term, especially if it could develop or modify the organisms further to increase the range of chemicals produced. "There is a lot of novelty here," he said.

Another judge, Dr Adrian Higson from the UK Centre for Biorenewable Energy, Fuels and Materials, said LanzaTech’s marriage of thermoprocessing and bio-processing gives LanzaTech a flexible platform.

Dr Holmgren says LanzaTech’s process produces fuels and high-value chemicals from low-cost resources, such as industrial flue gases from steel mills and processing plants, syngas generated from any biomass resource, coal-derived syngas and steam reformed methane. A growing suite of chemicals are able to be produced, including 2,3-butandiol, butanol, propanol, isoprene and succinic acid.

The ICIS award and the Global Cleantech 100 listing keep LanzaTech in the investment spotlight. Sheeraz Haji, Cleantech Group’s CEO says sstakeholders including members of the corporate community, investors, and regulators now watch the Global Cleantech 100 list closely to gauge which sectors look most promising and which companies are poised for growth.

The Global Cleantech Top 100 list focuses on private clean technology companies considered to be most likely to make the most significant market impact over the next five to 10 years. To qualify for the list, companies must be independent, for-profit, Cleantech companies that are not listed on any major stock exchange. A total of 4,274 companies were nominated this year from more than 45 countries.

About LanzaTech:
Founded in New Zealand in 2005, LanzaTech has developed a novel gas-liquid fermentation process that produces fuels and chemicals from gas resources. Backed by global investment, LanzaTech employs a strong technical team based in the USA, China and New Zealand and has a rapidly growing patent portfolio. LanzaTech's technology enables energy partnerships between multiple industries. With agreements now in place across a variety of sectors internationally, including steel, coal, refining and chemicals, LanzaTech’s technology is being scaled to commercial production.
www.lanzatech.com

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