GAIL, LanzaTech join hands to explore bio-recycling carbon waste into fuels and chemicals

GAIL (India) Ltd, the country’s largest gas distributor, and LanzaTech Global, an innovative carbon capture and utilization company that converts waste carbon into products that people use in their daily lives, have entered a partnership to explore innovative technology solutions that advance GAIL’s net zero 2040 goals and have the potential to support wider decarbonization applications globally.

The partnership between GAIL and LanzaTech will focus on the development of a pilot-scale CO2 capture and conversion project. The project intends to serve as a role model for converting CO2 waste into useful materials instead of releasing it into the atmosphere.

“Combining LanzaTech’s carbon capture and utilization technology with GAIL’s renewable H2 and CO2 gas streams, the project will enable resource utilization where the building blocks of everyday consumer goods viz. Fuel, Packaging and Clothing can be made from bio-recycled material instead of virgin fossil fuel,” the company said in a press release.

“The possibilities coming out of this collaboration with LanzaTech are very promising and significant to improving our carbon footprint,” said Sandeep Kumar Gupta, Chairman and Managing Director of GAIL. “Using LanzaTech’s cutting-edge technology will enhance our environmental stewardship and open up new avenues for driving sustainability across our operations.”

“Waste CO2 can be used to make the things we need,” said Jennifer Holmgren, LanzaTech’s CEO and Board Member of the US-India Strategic Partnership. “By combining LanzaTech’s expertise in carbon recycling with GAIL’s commitment to reducing emissions and implementing renewable projects, this project has the potential to turn CO2 from an environmental liability to a value-added product. CO2 can be the raw material of the future, enabling fossil carbon to stay underground. We look forward to launching our collaboration with GAIL to make this vision a reality.”

LanzaTech’s carbon capture and utilization technology functions akin to a brewery, with proprietary bacteria consuming carbon-rich pollution from industrial facilities and converting it into CarbonSmart chemicals. These chemicals serve as the foundation for producing rubber, plastics, synthetic fibres and fuels, which in turn are used in the manufacturing of consumer goods like clothing, laundry detergent and sustainable aviation fuel (SAF). Through this collaboration, GAIL and LanzaTech aim to set new benchmarks in carbon utilization, providing a compelling model for utilization of CO2 gas streams that would otherwise be emitted as greenhouse gases.