Emissions of the toxic gas carbon monoxide are a common byproduct of the steelmaking process. Now, a New Zealand company that's figured out a way to transform this gas into ethanol is partnering with a Harrisburg-area metals industry contractor to put this technology in place around the world.
The metals division of Harsco, which is based in Wormleysburg, works on production sites in more than 30 countries. Its services include processing scrap metal, managing inventory and recycling steelmaking waste.
Across the Pacific, LanzaTech has a promising method for converting carbon monoxide into fuel. Essentially the gas is captured in a reactor filled with microbes that separate water from ethanol.
LanzaTech plans to build a plant in China this year to test how its process works at a steelmaking plant. Once it's proven to work Harsco hopes to install similar plants at the facilities it works at across the globe by 2014.
“The ethanol, we can just trade in the world market,” says Clyde Kirkwood, chief technical officer for Harsco's metals and materials divisions. LanzaTech says the ethanol could be used in products like jet fuel and diesel.
Source: Clyde Kirkwood, Harsco Corp.
Writer: Rebecca VanderMeulen