FT
energy news
Energy from microbes
Lanza
Tech, a small New Zealand company, has discovered microbes capable of turning
carbon monoxide from steel making into biofuel. This process is already in
use by Baosteel near Shanghai. Accelor
Mittal will invest $87 million at its steel plant at Ghent, Belgium to use
Lanza Tech’s microbial process to make 47,000 tons of ethanol a year. If the
system at Ghent proves commercially viable and Accelor Mittal installed the
process across its steel operations, it could produce 10 percent of Europe’s
bioethanol per year. (Financial Times
July 13, 2015)
US electricity generation for the
first time ever is from gas (31%) more than from coal (30%). Greenhouse gas
emissions from gas are half those of coal yet are 100 times more than emissions
from renewables. Electricity generation capacity from wind is expected to
increase by 9.3 gigawatts in 2015 while coal capacity shrinks by 12.9
gigawatts. Capacity to generate electricity from gas is expected to increase by
4.3 gigawatts in 2015. (FT July 13, 2015)
