A project headed by Chicago-based climate-tech company LanzaTech Global Inc. is among 33 projects across more than 20 states identified to receive up to $6 billion by the U.S. Department of Energy for commercial-scale decarbonization solutions.
The joint project SECURE, which stands for "sustainable ethylene from CO2 utilization with renewable energy," will look to develop new technology to produce sustainable ethylene from captured carbon dioxide in collaboration with Houston engineering firm Technip Energies.
If the project receives the DOE award, up to $200 million is expected to be used to fund the design, engineering, construction and equipment for a commercial site in the U.S. that could be used for ethylene crackers worldwide.
Ethylene crackers convert crude oil or natural gas into ethylene, a key building block for thousands of chemicals and materials, LanzaTech said. Globally, there are an estimated 370 ethylene steam crackers, according to LanzaTech, more than 40% of which use Technip's technology, including eight in the U.S.
Dr. John Holladay, vice president of government programs for LanzaTech, said the upcoming negotiations with the DOE were not a "formality," but added that LanzaTech has won multiple awards from the DOE and has never not been able to complete negotiations.
"Our confidence level is very high," he told Chicago Inno.
LanzaTech, a carbon-recycling tech company, offers a carbon transformation that converts carbon waste into sustainable fuels and chemicals.
The company reduced its overall head count by 5% to begin 2024 as a tougher macroeconomic and higher inflationary environment hurt led to more "cost control discipline."
Holladay said the DOE announcement, and the project that comes out of it, will help build LanzaTech's presence in the U.S. and could open the door for more sites to be established.
"Our mission is to decarbonize the hard-to-decarbonzie industries. That's consistent with what the Department of Energy is trying to do," he said. "What this does is help de-risk this technology so that it's much easier to get the financing needed to duplicate this."
The site selection process will come down to which locations have the infrastructure required as well as other community elements.
"The U.S. chemical industry is highly concentrated in the Gulf Coast region, and that makes it a nice place to be because it'd be easier to replicate them throughout the region," Holladay said.
SECURE could receive up to $200 million to fund the project, which is expected to provide 200 construction jobs and 40 permanent jobs.
LanzaTech (Nasdaq: LNZA) previously collaborated with Technip on other sustainable solutions, including a partnership with Austrian chemical manufacturer Borealis and Swiss sports brand On to create Cloudprime, the first shoe made from carbon emissions. The two companies also signed a joint collaboration agreement in 2023 to combine their technologies to create a new pathway to sustainable ethylene.
LanzaJet, spun out of LanzaTech in 2020, also announced a partnership with Technip in 2023 to help further accelerate the launch and global deployment o fits alcohol-to-jet fuel process.
