JSPL, IOC talk to Kiwi Lanza for ethanol

In a bid to scout for newer ways of making use of waste gases and petro products from different processes, two of India’s sector biggies — Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) and Jindal Steel and Power Ltd (JSPL) — have initiated talks with New Zealand-based green energy company LanzaTech.

Under a memorandum of understanding signed between Lanza and these two companies, Lanza will supply technology and expertise to produce industrial and fuel ethanol using unused
by-products.

“We have developed a technology which can produce ethanol from waste gases and pet coke, which are otherwise not put to any useful and commercial means on a large scale,” said Sean D Simpson, chief scientific officer and founder of LanzaTech, based in Auckland.

Simpson said his company is the pioneer of this technology in the world and is keen to exploit it commercially at a large scale in emerging markets considering a rapidly growing demand in the emerging markets.

“We are currently present in China where we are working with Baosteel to commercially produce ethanol from the raw waste gases produced from its steel mills,” he said and added that by the first quarter of 2013, the joint venture is likely to produce 50 million gallon of ethanol per year.

While a joint venture with JSPL will include the same technology of using waste gases to manufacture ethanol, in case of IOC, Lanza will make use of pet coke, a by-product obtained during refining of crude.

While talks are at an initial stage and it will take some time to set up a commercially operational plant, Simpson said both India and China offer a huge market in terms of ethanol demand.

“China has mandated 10% blending of ethanol in nine provinces across the country and India is currently at 5%. Besides these, there is a huge demand of ethanol from the breweries in India,” he
said.

Besides this, Lanza also boasts of having developed a technology of manufacturing ethanol from biomass gas and gases produced from municipal solid waste.

“With all the debate and protests raging around diversion of corn and sugarcane for manufacture of fuel ethanol, use of innovative ways of manufacturing the product is sure to catch up soon,” Simpson said.

According to the official figures made available by Lanza, both India and China is expected to see a major surge in ethanol demand by 2015. In 2010, demand for industrial ethanol in China stood at 869 million gallons per year while in India it was 177 per year million gallons. This is expected to grow to 1,338 million gallons for China and 194 million gallons per year for India by 2015.