'MAYBE' TECH
The World’s First Polypropylene Made From Waste CO2
Biotechnology company LanzaTech and carbon transformation company Twelve have joined forces to convert CO2 emissions into polypropylene, a primary polymer used in medical equipment such as syringes and IV bags. The polymer is also used for large-scale furniture, textiles, automotive, and other everyday products like bottle caps. This novel approach will significantly reduce CO2 emissions.
The partnership will combine two platform technologies – the carbon transformation technology and Pollution To Products™ technology – to enable additional product development from CO2 streams, representing one of many ways to scale carbon transformation solutions.
The carbon transformation technology created by Twelve transforms CO2 into materials that are usually made from fossil fuels. Twelve helps brands remove emissions by replacing the petrochemicals in their products and supply chains with carbon-neutral fuels and CO2Made® carbon-negative chemicals and materials.
Meanwhile, LanzaTech’s carbon recycling Pollution To Products™ technology uses nature-based solutions to create ethanol and other materials from waste CO2.
Dr. Etosha Cave, the Chief Science Officer at Twelve, said:
Dr. Jennifer Holmgren, the CEO of LanzaTech, explained:
Twelve and LanzaTech were awarded a $200,000 grant from Impact Squared to continue their partnership. The Impact Squared grant is a $1.1 million fund designed and launched by the Barclays and Unreasonable Group, a platform for entrepreneurs tackling some of the world’s most pressing social and environmental challenges. The partners plan to use the Impact Squared grant to reduce the fossil fuel impact of essential products.
Last year, we saw some exciting carbon transformation solutions in the works. For example, engineers from the University of New South Wales were developing a technique that converts CO2 emissions into chemical Lego-like building blocks to make synthetic fuel and plastics. Also, a team of NASA-funded chemists was developing a biohybrid system that would allow mars settlers to transform CO2, water, and sunlight to make drugs, food, and plastic. CO2 and water are abundant on Mars; about 96% of the atmosphere is CO2.
(Credit: Pixabay. Photo edit: Luana Steffen)
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