DOE Backs Technip, LanzaTech for CO2-to-Ethylene Technology

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Written by Paul Wiseman for Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Capturing carbon dioxide (CO2) from ethylene production and combining it with green hydrogen to produce more ethylene and ethanol is what Project SECURE is all about. Having proven it in the lab, SECURE's creators, Technip Energies (Nanterre, France) and LanzaTech (Skokie, Illinois), will now receive up to $200 million from the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations (OCED) to commercialize the process and make it available to the energy industry.

Technip and Lanza plan to deploy this technology first in the U.S. Gulf Coast region, where it can be directly integrated into existing commercial ethylene crackers. In a joint press release, the companies said there are about 370 ethylene steam crackers around the world, and about 40% of them use Technip Energies' existing technology. Eight of those facilities are in the U.S.

The DOE previously had supported LanzaTech's research in carbon-recycling technology, which the company says can be used in any industry that produces waste carbon. This type of recycling keeps CO2 out of the air and eliminates the need for a separate sequestration operation.

How It Works
SECURE involves a three-step process. First, a Technip carbon-capture technology captures the CO2 at the facility in which it is installed. Second, LanzaTech's gas fermentation process converts the captured CO2 to sustainable ethanol. Finally, Technip's Hummingbird technology converts the ethanol into sustainable ethylene.

The exact operation is proprietary, but according to decarbonfuse, it could use "a biological process involving microorganisms that can convert CO2 into valuable chemicals." The companies involved gave no indication of what the mechanics involve.

Replacement for Bio Feedstocks
Ethylene is a precursor to such industrial products as polyester, textiles, foam, plastics and others. Most significantly for Industrial Info's Geoffrey S. Lakings, is its use as the first step in the alcohol-to-jet fuel process in making sustainable aviation fuel (SAF). Lakings notes that LanzaTech "is already among the few who are commercializing an alternative to used cooking oil (UCO) or hydroprocessed esters and fatty acids (HEFA) in making SAF."

Because UCO and HEFA rely on waste food, their total availability always will be limited. At this point, the U.S. is the only nation with a significant pipeline for those products to be collected and delivered to processing plants. Plus, many existing sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) processes suffer from high costs compared to kerosene-based aviation fuels.

There was no information on the relative cost of the Technip Energies/LanzaTech-made product, although the fact that it could serve a dual purpose in also relieving some carbon-capture and storage (CCS) expenses could give it some economic benefit compared to bio-based feedstocks.

While using industry-emitted CO2 is technically a waste product, LanzaTech said it can be perfect for hard-to-decarbonize industries such as refining. The company expects the OCED grant to help them deploy enough of the new technology to generate up to 50,000 tonnes of annual nameplate capacity of ethanol production.

Lakings said the new technology may help LanzaTech pivot away from its focus on bio feedstocks for SAF "with their ATJ (alcohol-to-jet) technology." The company has been working with corn, and it may be exploring sugarcane as well.

Industrial Info recently reported a Hawaiian company is converting some refining units in that state to use sustainably grown camelina as feedstock for renewable diesel and SAF. For more information, see November 25, 2024, article - Par Hawaii Converting Refining Units to Renewable Diesel, SAF.

Although there was a brief period in 2024 where biofuel plants, such as renewable diesel plants, converted back to fossil fuels due to oversupply, the market for SAF now may be poised to expand, Lakings says, with mandates from the EuroZone and U.K. to take effect in 2025. International research firm Research and Markets sees global SAF demand accelerating at 32.34% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) from 2025-2030, as airlines and governments push for ways to reduce the industry's carbon footprint.

Whatever the status of SAF, the SECURE process can provide ethylene to other industrial sectors, assuming the cost is in line with existing ethylene supplies.

Industrial Info Resources (IIR) is the leading provider of industrial market intelligence. Since 1983, IIR has provided comprehensive research, news and analysis on the industrial process, manufacturing and energy related industries. IIR's Global Market Intelligence (GMI) platform helps companies identify and pursue trends across multiple markets with access to real, qualified and validated plant and project opportunities. Across the world, IIR is tracking more than 200,000 current and future projects worth $17.8 trillion (USD).