Friday 16 August 2013

Climate crisis threat and opportunity

Hard on the heals of Generations Zero's whirl wind tour, the news cycle bring us yet another example of a New Zealand company addressing the issue and making a buck. Lanza tech have a process that converts carbon dioxide into ethanol. What about this has made the headlines is the fact that they now have a partnership with the Indian government to develop industrial plant use this process to make fuel from industrial pollution.


This will mean that companies using this technology will make money from waste output. Also, if they use biofuel for energy or their industrial process uses bio-sourced materials, they will add no more carbon to the atmosphere.


A process for turning ethanol into plastic has been known for some time, this would lock up carbon especially if it is suitable for a building material. Indeed mixing plastic into concrete increases its durability, and reduces its weight to volume ratio.

Notice how our(NZ) own government's knuckle dragging environmental and economy policy gives little interest in addressing the reality of climate change, and indeed is still schmoozing big oil.  Surprising that NZ$14m in public money was invested in Lanzatech, because it is precisely the sort of thing public investment should be used for.

See Also
   3news.co.nz- Lanza Tech
   Ethanol to plastic

No comments:

Post a Comment