LanzaTech purchases defunct Range Fuels’ facility

Range Fuels has sold its cellulosic ethanol plant to New Zealand biofuels company LanzaTech after the company went into the red this month.

In an auction, LanzaTech purchased the ethanol plant located in Soperton, Georgia, US, for $5.1 million (€4 million), as part of a liquidation process that was approved by the government.

LanzaTech, that has received funding from Khosla Ventures, says it will produce biochemicals at the plant and the facility itself has the capacity to produce 4 million gallons of cellulosic ethanol a year.

In the past, Range Fuels received grants from the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) to produce cellulosic methanol, before turning to ethanol. The plant ran on woodchips, using a thermochemical conversion process to turn the feedstock into the fuel.

Through the purchase, LanzaTech was able to collect some of the $38 million loan, part of which the USDA had awarded the company.

LanzaTaech says it might keep some of the technology in the plant, such as the gasifier, although its main technology will be different – using proprietary microbes to turn the gas into ethanol. As a byproduct, the process produces butanediol and both of these products can be used for jet fuel.

The plant will be LanzaTech’s first production facility, although it is currently building a demonstration plant in Shanghai using waste gases produced from a steel mill and turning this into biofuels.