NextChem and US carbon recycling company, LanzaTech sign an agreement to license the “Waste to Ethanol” process line. NextChem thereby expands its circular economy and chemical recycling technologies, adding circular ethanol technology to circular hydrogen and circular methanol production technologies (currently in the engineering phase), based on the chemical recycling of plastic and dry waste. The basic process is the chemical conversion of hydrogen and carbon contained in plasmix1 and RDF2, from which a Circular Gas is obtained to be used as a base to produce various chemical products. With LanzaTech’s biological “syngas fermentation” technology, ethanol is produced by bacteria, transforming the Circular Gas at low temperature and low pressure, improving the overall sustainability profile of the process. This is an example of the bio-economy in action, serving the circular economy and promoting decarbonization. NextChem will exclusively license this technology in Italy and, on a project basis, in some foreign markets.
Circular ethanol derived from this process can be blended with gasoline displacing fossil inputs with recycled carbon, lowering the fuel’s carbon footprint. When produced from biological wastes and residues, 40% of the circular ethanol can be considered as “advanced “under the EU Renewable Energy Directive. Ethanol (which is imported by Italy), is another important intermediate product for the production of a series of chemical components, such as ethyl acetate, a valuable solvent for car paints, which Europe has to import, and alcohol used as a disinfectant. By making these products from waste-derived ethanol, circular models of consumption are promoted.
