LanzaTech recently announced that it has successfully engineered a bacterium to produce specialized biocatalysts to produce ethylene from CO_2 in a continuous process directly. The development represents a significant opportunity for LanzaTech to penetrate the global ethylene market, estimated at approximately US$125 billion in 2022. Ethylene is a building block for thousands of chemicals and materials. It is deployed extensively in producing plastics, detergents, and coatings. Unfortunately, its production process is also one of the largest sources of carbon dioxide emissions in the chemical industry and remains one of its most challenging processes to decarbonize. Around 160 million tons of ethylene are produced annually. It is the most widely used petrochemical in the world, primarily produced today from fossil inputs in an energy-intensive reaction that releases climate-damaging CO_2 gas.
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