New Zealand scientists say they can turn carbon monoxide, a nasty byproduct of industrial processes, into ethanol fuel. Talk about turning lemons into lemonade...
As reported by the Green Car Congress, LanzaTech of New Zealand received funding for a bacterial fermentation process that can harvest gases from the industrial processes such as steel manufacturing into alternative fuel. The company received $3.5 million from Khosla Ventures to build a test manufacturing plant.
In theory this could be even better than cellulosic ethanol since it doesn't require agricultural resources. However, the energy efficiency of this process has to be evaluated though to see how much of a net energy gain there is. Also, since combustion engines produce carbon monoxide, could cars theoretically produce some fuel while burning gasoline?
Source: Green Car Congress
