How CO2 becomes a valuable raw material

Gent Francis Steenbrugghe ducks under metal scaffolding, runs up a flight of stairs in the dark factory hall and shines a flashlight on a large gray box. “That’s the compressor motor,” says the Lanzatech engineer. When it is up and running soon, a raw material that is important for the industry will be recovered here from the exhaust gases of the steelworks: ethanol.

The plant in Ghent, Belgium, is perhaps one of the most important construction sites in Europe. At least for the climate. It is being built by the Arcelormittal steel group under the supervision of Lanzatech.

The four bioreactors are thirty meters high and are filled with bacteria that eat carbon dioxide and live in a special liquid. “The gas is fed in at the bottom and rises, foam forms at the top like in the fermentation process of beer,” says Steenbrugghe. In the next step, the ethanol is filtered out and stored.