LanzaTech, a company focused on carbon recycling to create sustainable fuels, chemicals, and materials, recently signed a Master License Agreement with Sekisui Chemical to implement a jointly developed platform that converts syngas from municipal solid waste (MSW) and industrial solid waste into ethanol at a commercial scale.

Sekisui plans to establish multiple facilities across various municipalities in Japan, utilizing equipment packages, engineering and advisory services, consumables, and intellectual property supplied by LanzaTech.

The first commercial-scale facility is anticipated to produce between 10 to 12 kilotons of ethanol annually. This ethanol meets the synthetic alcohol standard set by the Japan Alcohol Association Standard (JAAS) and can be transformed into ethylene and kerosene for Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF), along with a wide range of applications in materials and chemicals, including apparel, personal care products, and packaging.

This recent agreement builds on a decade-long partnership aimed at diverting waste from landfills and incineration, converting it into valuable feedstocks that would typically be sourced from fossil fuels or food crops. The agreement follows the successful operation of a pilot plant in Yorii-machi, Saitama, Japan, established in 2017, and the completion of an MSW-to-ethanol demonstration facility in Kuji City, Iwate, Japan, in 2022, which can produce approximately 400 tons of ethanol annually.

Japan generates about 56 million tons of combustible waste annually, with municipal and industrial waste posing significant and escalating global challenges; the World Bank predicts that by 2050, waste generation will reach 3.88 billion tons per year, a staggering 73% increase from 2020 levels. Typically, combustible waste is either sent to landfills, producing methane—a greenhouse gas 23 times more potent than carbon dioxide—or incinerated for energy, releasing embedded carbon into the atmosphere.

Through this jointly developed biology-based platform, Sekisui will be able to convert unsorted waste into a cost-effective alternative to fossil fuel-derived feedstocks. The bioprocessing platform gasifies the unsorted combustible waste collected at disposal facilities and transforms this gas into ethanol using a microbial catalyst and gas fermentation technology, which does not rely on chemical catalysts, heat, or pressure.