Synthetic Biology Platforms
LanzaTech
by LanzaTech Global, Inc.
Carbon capture and biorefinery platform converting waste industrial gases into sustainable fuels and chemicals
Category
Synthetic Biology Platforms
Founded
2005
Headquarters
Skokie, IL, USA
Overview
LanzaTech has developed a proprietary gas fermentation biotechnology platform that uses engineered Clostridium autoethanogenum bacteria to convert carbon-rich waste gases — including steel mill off-gases, syngas from biomass gasification, and captured industrial CO2 — into ethanol, sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) precursors, and other chemicals. The process recycles carbon that would otherwise be emitted as CO2, representing a carbon-capture-and-utilization approach to decarbonizing hard-to-abate industries. LanzaTech's commercial facilities are operational at steel mills and refineries in China, India, Belgium, and the United States, where they capture waste gases and produce ethanol at commercial scale. The company has produced over 100 million gallons of sustainable ethanol from captured carbon, and its SAF pathway (via LanzaJet) has received approval for use in commercial aviation. Partners including ArcelorMittal, Indian Oil, and Sekisui Chemical use LanzaTech technology to reduce Scope 1 emissions from industrial operations. LanzaTech differentiates through its proven commercial-scale deployments — unlike many industrial biotechnology companies that remain at pilot scale, LanzaTech has multiple full-scale plants running continuously — and its expanding portfolio of end products. The acquisition of CarbonSmart and development of LanzaJet enable LanzaTech to convert its ethanol into sustainable aviation fuel, polyester fiber, and other high-value materials, giving partners a pathway from waste gas to drop-in sustainable products for global markets.
Key Features
Cell-Free Prototyping
Rapid testing of genetic designs in cell-free systems before committing to cellular construction.
Fermentation Optimization
Data-driven optimization of fermentation conditions from lab-scale to commercial biomanufacturing.
Foundry-Scale Assembly
Robotic DNA assembly and transformation processing thousands of genetic designs in parallel.
Genetic Parts Catalog
Curated libraries of characterized genetic parts including promoters, terminators, and regulatory elements.
Design-Build-Test-Learn Automation
Automated DBTL cycle with integrated data capture and machine learning optimization.
Pros & Cons
Pros
- +End-to-end platform from DNA design through fermentation optimization and process development
- +Metabolic modeling predicts optimal genetic modifications for target compound production
- +Proprietary strain libraries and genetic parts catalogs accelerate design-build-test-learn cycles
- +Bio-manufacturing partnerships enable commercial scale-up from prototype to production organisms
- +Foundry-scale automation processes thousands of genetic designs in parallel
- +Cell programming platform designs custom organisms for therapeutics, agriculture, and industrial biotechnology
Cons
- −High upfront investment in foundry automation infrastructure before generating meaningful results
- −Intellectual property landscape for genetic parts and engineered organisms is complex
- −Regulatory frameworks for engineered organisms vary globally and can delay commercialization
- −Scale-up from laboratory to commercial production introduces unpredictable biological challenges
- −Design-build-test-learn cycles still require weeks to months for complex organism engineering
Use Cases
Strain Engineering & Optimization
Automated organism engineering combining high-throughput strain construction with ML-guided metabolic design.
Biosynthetic Pathway Design
Computational design of metabolic pathways for production of target compounds in engineered organisms.
Fermentation Scale-Up
Data-driven optimization of fermentation conditions from lab-scale to commercial biomanufacturing.