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If you happen to’d like to seek out out whether or not Jennifer Holmgren can do one thing, the quickest manner is to inform her she will be able to’t.
The Colombian-born chemist began her profession within the late Eighties, in a lab in Des Plaines, Illinois, working for a corporation known as UOP that might later be acquired by Honeywell. UOP developed know-how for the petroleum and petrochemical industries, and after turning into the corporate’s director of exploratory analysis in 2002, Holmgren started pitching the concept of bio-based chemical compounds and fuels. Given this was an organization squarely centered on the fossil gas trade, she confronted loads of inside pushback from colleagues who thought the entire thought of other fuels was one thing of a joke. Nonetheless, by 2006, she’d satisfied the higher-ups to create, and let her lead, a renewable power and chemical division.
It wasn’t lengthy earlier than Holmgren’s analysis caught the eye of the U.S. navy, and he or she and her group started growing aviation biofuels for navy jets utilizing a wide range of feedstocks, together with animal fat, algae and camelina, a seed much like flax. Once more, Holmgren confronted skepticism from her colleagues — many didn’t consider planes would fly on biofuels. However by 2010, not solely had been the naysayers consuming their phrases, they had been consuming the Inexperienced Hornet’s camelina-flavored mud. Throughout an Earth Day demonstration, the Navy flew the fighter jet on a 50-50 mix of standard jet gas and camelina oil-based kerosene. At supersonic speeds.
Given the heights she’d soared to, it got here as one thing of a shock to the folks round her when Holmgren left UOP Honeywell that 12 months to turn out to be the primary CEO of a little-known New Zealand startup known as LanzaTech. Sean Simpson, the corporate’s co-founder and driving drive, had made a game-changing discovery: a microbe that ingests greenhouse gases and produces ethanol. Realizing the varied limitations of different feedstocks, Holmgren noticed the corporate’s know-how as a possible local weather answer. LanzaTech, looking out for a brand new dwelling base in addition to a CEO, moved to the Chicago space the place Holmgren lived, they usually went to work growing applied sciences that flip waste gases — then primarily from the smokestacks of metal mills — into chemical compounds and jet gas.
I believed to myself, ‘I am taking a look at a know-how that whether it is profitable — and it wasn’t a on condition that it might be — can change the whole lot.’
Over the 11-odd years since, LanzaTech has grown right into a carbon recycling powerhouse. The corporate’s course of converts carbon waste from industrial smokestacks, agriculture and landfills into ethanol utilized by its companions to make a complete slew of merchandise, together with dishwashing liquid for Unilever, family cleaners and plastic packaging for Mibelle, fragrance for COTY, and attire for Zara. And simply final week the corporate stated it plans to go public by merging with particular function acquisition firm AMCI Acquisition Corp II, in a deal that values LanzaTech at $2.2 billion.
What LanzaTech not does inside its personal operations is make jet gas. That’s as a result of, in 2020, Holmgren made the choice to spin out the fuels division, her child and arguably the corporate’s crown jewel, to type LanzaJet. Financed partly by a current $50 million funding from the Microsoft Local weather Innovation Fund, LanzaJet is constructing its first industrial manufacturing plant, in Soperton, Georgia, and expects the power to start operations in 2023.
Over the course of her profession, Holmgren, 61, has acquired quite a few accolades for her work, each as a scientist and as a chief government. LanzaTech’s chief sustainability officer, Freya Burton, describes her boss as supportive and empathetic, but passionate and pushed, traits that encourage dedication and loyalty amongst her workers.
However Holmgren’s true superpower simply could also be her unflinching means to shock folks. She has a penchant for taking surprising dangers. And he or she usually proves anybody who doubts her mistaken. She is, in brief, a soft-spoken, introverted, Latina scientist who has managed to thrive within the male-dominated worlds of science and enterprise, and to take action on her personal phrases.
I lately spoke with Holmgren about her journey, the evolution of other aviation fuels and what she sees for the way forward for renewable jet gas, carbon recycling and herself. The next interview, which happened earlier than the merger announcement, has been edited for size and readability. To listen to extra of the story, tune into episode 308 of the GreenBiz 350 podcast. You’ll be shocked.
CJ Clouse: I wished to begin by asking you about your background and influences. What bought you curious about science?
Holmgren: I used to be 9 years previous when man landed on the moon in July 1969, and I would been studying in regards to the U.S. Area program. I bear in mind all the time ready for my uncle to come back dwelling with the newspaper and opening it as much as an replace of the Apollo program, tossing it on the ground and simply leaning ahead. After which, after we got here to the U.S., I had these wonderful highschool academics, my math instructor, my chemistry instructor, my physics instructor. And I simply went loopy; I fell in love with science and actually was inspired by them to pursue it. So I’m the product of the USA public college system. I grew to become who I’m as we speak due to them.
Clouse: What about your loved ones? Have been they excited in regards to the prospect of you turning into a scientist? Or did they need you to pursue a profession or a life that was extra widespread for ladies on the time?
Holmgren: I am very fortunate as a result of I grew up in a household the place my mother and father supported my each whim, and science was my whim. They had been very supportive of me going to varsity, getting a Ph.D. I used to be all the time somewhat completely different, so I don’t suppose it was surprising for me to do one thing somewhat completely different.
Clouse: Which scientific subject did you pursue at college?
Holmgren: So, I am a chemist. I went to Harvey Mudd Faculty, which is generally an engineering and science college in California. It is a terrific college, a small non-public college. I bought my chemistry diploma there. And I grew to become a Holmgren there. I married the love of my life, who’s a physicist. Then we went to grad college collectively on the College of Illinois. I bought a Ph.D. in chemistry; he bought one in physics.
Clouse: Let’s speak a bit about your profession at UOP Honeywell. Is that the place your curiosity in various fuels began? And from what I perceive, you needed to push to even have that renewable power and chemical compounds division created, is that proper?
Holmgren: Sure, I went from being a lab chemist to managing a variety of the early-stage R&D. And that included what we used to name exploratory and elementary analysis. My job was to get the corporate into new areas, and what I began to concentrate on was various feedstocks, aside from petroleum. So first we had been doing work with pure gasoline, after which we began taking a look at biology. And at the moment, there have been only a few folks speaking about local weather change. The power transition was not a factor, and, frankly, the one various that folks might think about was pure gasoline. … [Then in 2005] I bought a telephone name from a program supervisor at DARPA [the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency], and I did not know him, however he stated, “Jennifer, I hear you are engaged on renewable diesel, are you able to make renewable jet gas?” And everyone stated, “You are by no means going to fly on another aviation gas. It is simply not going to occur.” … So he set down the problem to develop a drop-in jet gas, and we began engaged on that in 2006, and by 2010, we had completed it. On Earth Day 2010, we flew the Inexperienced Hornet. It went supersonic on various aviation gas. And I bear in mind considering to myself: In lower than 5 years, we went from “it may well’t be completed” to flying a supersonic jet.
Clouse: Wow, that’s fairly unimaginable.
Holmgren: It reveals you that the whole lot folks say cannot be completed, could be completed.
Clouse: So that you’re doing this groundbreaking work at UOP Honeywell, and LanzaTech, this little startup in New Zealand, calls you. What was it in regards to the firm or the chance that made you allow the safety of your job and take an opportunity on this younger firm?
Holmgren: That they had already began doing work on a pilot scale, and Sean [Simpson], the founder, and Vinod Khosla, the biggest investor, had determined they wanted a CEO. And I had developed some actually thrilling applied sciences at UOP Honeywell, but it surely used to maintain me up at night time as a result of the petroleum trade makes use of 100 million barrels of petroleum daily. 100 million barrels. And we measure the manufacturing of other fuels in tens of hundreds of thousands of gallons a 12 months. So there is a huge disconnect between what you are able to do with conventional organic feedstocks and the dimensions and scope of the whole lot we use as we speak made out of fossil fuels. And it used to hassle me as a result of we undoubtedly can develop vegetation to make biofuels, however not at that degree. You are going to run right into a land difficulty, a meals difficulty, a water difficulty. And I saved questioning how we had been going to get to scale. So after I bought launched to LanzaTech, right here was an organization that used carbon monoxide, and my Ph.D. thesis was on utilizing carbon monoxide and hydrogen to make merchandise. And I believed, holy s—. If this works, it is not only a idea that may work with a metal mill that emits carbon monoxide, this may work with any off gasoline, from a metal mill or a refinery. It’s going to work with gasified solids. It’s going to work with the whole lot. And I believed to myself, I am taking a look at a know-how that whether it is profitable — and it wasn’t a on condition that it might be — can change the whole lot. This is one thing that may get to scale. So I believed, I’ve bought to do that. I’ve bought to determine if this works. And so I did.
Clouse: Are you able to clarify the method? How are greenhouse gases transformed into ethanol?
Holmgren: So that you’re aware of the fermentation of sugar to make beer, proper? As a substitute of sugar, we ferment three crucial gases: carbon monoxide; carbon dioxide; and hydrogen. And now we have a micro organism that likes to eat that stuff, and what it produces from that’s ethanol. We recuperate the ethanol, and we make stuff with it. So, most individuals suppose, “OK, what can we do with ethanol? We will put it in gasoline.” However very early on, we knew that the longer term was not in gasoline-powered vehicles. You can see that in 2010. So the longer term needed to be in one thing else. What else can I do with ethanol? Nicely, what’s the largest chemical feedstock used as we speak? It is ethylene. Mainly the whole lot you utilize, your polyester, your bottles, your cosmetics, your sneakers, all of them begin life as ethylene. And ethanol to ethylene, that is one simple step. So we began to develop the power to make ethylene from waste ethanol after which use that ethylene to make the merchandise we use in our every day lives.
Clouse: And that’s the way you make Zara attire.
Holmgren: The great thing about it’s, no one had ever imagined that you might take metal mill gasoline and make a Zara gown from it. However in the event you divide the world into three elements: fossil fuels get used for power manufacturing; they get used to make fuels; they usually get used to make merchandise. Then you definately begin to suppose, “OK, we already know learn how to produce energy with renewables, let photo voltaic and wind do this.” And we need not make fuels for vehicles as a result of vehicles are going to be electrical. However we do have to make jet gas. It may be a very long time earlier than you’ll be able to put a battery on a airplane and have it run on photo voltaic and get throughout the Atlantic or the Pacific. So we stated, let’s make jet gas. Then there’s that different half, the stuff we use daily, which has to have carbon, so we concentrate on that too.
Clouse: In 2020, you spun out the aviation fuels division of the corporate and fashioned LanzaJet. What was behind the choice to do this?
Holmgren: We expect [alternative] jet gas is basically an essential sector, and we wished it to maneuver sooner, like actually quick. So we invited strategic traders, firms like Mitsui, Suncor, Shell, British Airways to affix us in scaling up and doing it rapidly. You have in all probability already found out that aviation is my old flame. My father labored for an airline. We developed aviation gas after I was at UOP Honeywell. And we did it once more at LanzaTech. I believe aviation’s license to function will depend upon their means to scale back their carbon emissions, and that social license and my love for the trade says, “We have to make this go quick. We have to make this work. That is actually essential.” So LanzaJet is constructing a 10-million-gallon-a-year plant. Right now, there’s barely 30 million gallons per 12 months of sustainable aviation gas being produced. So 10 million goes to be a big chunk, and that plant needs to be up and working at the start of subsequent 12 months. That is actually thrilling. These traders have additionally stated, ‘If you happen to meet the KPIs at that scale, we’ll construct larger industrial vegetation. So we’re on a path to having tons of of hundreds of thousands of gallons of manufacturing capability by the center of this decade.
We do not want any extra carbon. So I am not apprehensive about working out of CO or CO2 or any of those gases. And boy, if we do, that will likely be a superb day.
Clouse: Wow, that quickly?
Holmgren: Oh yeah, we’re on it. We’re already engaged on a few of these vegetation, doing a few of the feasibility work. Have a look at Suncor’s statements about scaling aviation gas. Have a look at Shell, which has partnered with us on a undertaking in Sweden to take CO2 and hydrogen and make jet gas. That is occurring with Vattenfall, a big energy firm. They’re all dedicated to constructing vegetation, they usually’re on a schedule to construct them by 2025, 2026. Then there will be tons of of hundreds of thousands of gallons.
Clouse: Do you see planes with the ability to fly on 100% renewable gas in some unspecified time in the future?
Holmgren: Nicely, you see the engine firms and the airplane producers, Boeing and Airbus, engaged on attending to 100%. Right now, we’re licensed as much as 50 %, they usually’re making an attempt to get to 100. However the issue shouldn’t be the tools. The issue is how can we get to 100 billion gallons of jet gas, when as we speak we’re within the 20 to 30 million vary. So proper now what we have to do is construct manufacturing sooner.
Clouse: This final query falls below the “good downside to have” class. So that you’re capturing waste CO2 that’s produced by burning fossil fuels, and also you’re making aviation gas from it. If the aim is to cease burning fossil fuels, and we do lastly, hopefully cease in some unspecified time in the future, will the waste CO2 run out? And if it does, what is going to airplanes fly on?
Holmgren: First, we will additionally get [CO2] from gasified municipal stable waste. We have been doing a undertaking in Japan. If you happen to take municipal stable waste and also you partially combust it, you gasify it, you get the identical gases. We’re additionally doing a undertaking in India the place we’re utilizing gasified waste biomass that usually will get burnt within the subject. So, biomass residues, agriculture residues, we’ll get there by harnessing all of those completely different waste feed shares. CJ, there’s greater than sufficient carbon locked above floor in all of this waste to make the whole lot we want. We do not want any extra carbon. So I am not apprehensive about working out of CO or CO2 or any of those gases. And boy, if we do, that will likely be a superb day.
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