Sinopec Capital, as the industrial investment arm of Sinopec Group—one of the world’s largest integrated energy and chemicals companies—announced an investment in LanzaTech with a focus on promoting direct production of chemicals from waste carbon.

Petrochemicals account for around 12% of global oil demand—a share that is expected to increase.

LanzaTech’s platform takes pollution and recycles it, eliminating single-use carbon. Examples of the uses of the technology include taking steel mill emissions in China and unsorted, unrecyclable household waste in Japan and converting these wastes to ethanol which can be further converted to sustainable aviation fuel or polyethylene for consumer goods.

Of particular interest to Sinopec is LanzaTech’s synthetic biology capability which enables the production of chemicals directly from waste carbon, rather than via a building block such as ethanol. More than 50 chemicals have already been demonstrated, including continuous production of acetone and isopropyl alcohol at pilot scale.

When products made via this carbon recycling process reach the end of their useful life, they can go unsorted and uncleaned to a LanzaTech facility and be converted back into a gas stream and recycled repeatedly without losing any of the properties of the original material. This locks carbon into a cycle and supports a transition to a circular economy, an area of focus in China’s State Council guidelines released in February to develop a green and low-carbon circular economy, emphasizing energy and resource conservation at all levels.

LanzaTech represents the world-leading carbon recycling company. It is the strategic move for Sinopec Capital, through investment in LanzaTech, to invest in bio-chemical value chain and debut in international market of new energy and new materials. Capital investment plays an integral part in catalyzing the application and marketing of biotechnology while serving as an important way towards carbon capture, conversion and recycling. We at Sinopec Capital are committed to contribute to the transformation and upgrading of Sinopec Group, address climate change and deliver the target of carbon peaking and carbon neutrality.

—Huang Wensheng, Chairman of Sinopec Capital