03-10-2022
Global, carbon-recycling frontrunner LanzaTech sets up a European office in Delft
For 152 years, Delft has been a globally renowned hotspot for biotechnology. Today we are proud to announce that global, carbon-recycling LanzaTech is creating a European base at the Biotech Campus Delft.
The world’s challenges to deal with climate change become more visible by the day. Humanity urgently needs solutions to provide the growing world population with a sustainable supply of energy, food, health and materials. Biotechnology is a key technology that could offer solutions for a sustainable economy. In the last 10 years, the global biotechnology sector has undergone a strong growth, driven by scientific developments and by, often impact-driven, investments in young, innovative biotech companies.
The Biotech Campus Delft is a global hotspot where knowledge, infrastructure and network are actively shared to support growth of the biotech sector. Planet B.io was founded in 2020 with support of DSM, Delft University of Technology, Delft municipality, Province of South-Holland, and regional investment company InnovationQuarter. Planet B.io is dedicated to creating an open innovation hub on the Biotech Campus Delft, which today offers a home to 19 companies and more than 1400 employees.
LanzaTech was founded in New Zealand, has its headquarter in Chicago, USA and has offices in China, India. LanzaTech is now expanding its operations into Europe with a growing team and offices recently opened in England, Belgium and now also in Delft, The Netherlands. LanzaTech is the third global biotech company at the campus next to DSM and Centrient Pharmaceuticals.
LanzaTech’s carbon recycling gas fermentation technology has been in commercial operation since 2018 in China. The process is like retrofitting a brewery onto an emission source like a steel mill or a landfill site, but instead of using sugars and yeast to make beer, industrial emissions (Carbon oxides such as CO, CO2 and also H2) are converted by bacteria into fuels and chemicals. The primary product ethanol is already used in consumer products in Europe under the CarbonSmartTM name.
For example, ethanol in household cleaning products is developed in partnership with Mibelle in Switzerland. LanzaTech’s technology allows sustainable production of a variety of chemicals for application in textiles, sneakers, perfume or even jet fuel, just to name a few.
The 1st European commercial production facility is at the ArcelorMittal steelworks in Gent, Belgium and will be inaugurated in December 2022, with targeted EU production of CarbonSmart™ ethanol in 2023. This facility has received funding from the European Commission’s Horizon2020 program.
“We are delighted to find a home for our team at the Biotech Campus Delft,” says Jennifer Holmgren, CEO of LanzaTech. “We look forward to joining this community of like-minded companies on this vibrant campus as we grow our operations in Europe.”
“Our team has grown substantially over the last 3 years with much of us working remotely because of COVID,” says LanzaTech VP Europe, Babette Pettersen. “As we return to in person operations, we are excited to be joining and collaborating with the community of Planet B.io in what is clearly a hive of sustainable entrepreneurship and innovation.”
Cindy Gerhardt, managing director Planet B.io, is also excited about the settlement of LanzaTech on the Biotech Campus Delft:
“LanzaTech is truly a global biotech frontrunner, their technology is a gamechanger in creating a circular industry with biotechnology. The fact that our partner Delft University of Technology awarded CEO Jennifer Holmgren with an honorary doctorate in recognition of her pioneering work on Industrial Biotechnology this year says it all. We warmly welcome the team at the Biotech Campus Delft. The presence of LanzaTech will strengthen our ecosystem bringing unique experience in biotechnological carbon recycling at scale.”
“We are thrilled with the announcement that, next to DSM and Centrient, a third global biotechnology company makes its home at the Biotech Campus Delft. We strongly believe in the economical and sustainable potential of this location for Delft, the Netherlands and the whole world. The choice of LanzaTech for Delft confirms this believe. The city is well known for knowledge and innovations in a broad field of technologies. With the coming of LanzaTech, Delft will play an even bigger role in the field of biotechnology,” says mayor Municipality of Delft Marja van Bijsterveldt.