LanzaTech and LanzaTech CEO Jennifer Holmgren receive Edison Awards for making a significant and lasting contribution to the world of innovation.
The Edison Awards recognizes international innovation and entrepreneurship. LanzaTech announced today that Jennifer Holmgren, its CEO, received the Edison Achievement Award last night at their annual event in Fort Myers, Florida.
Every year, the Edison Awards honors one or more individuals who, through their careers, leadership, and achievements, have distinguished themselves by making a significant and lasting contribution to the world of innovation. Past recipients include Steve Jobs, Elon Musk, John Chambers, Jeff Immelt, Marillyn Hewson, and Ginni Rometty, among other innovators. In receiving the award, Holmgren said, "The innovators recognized tonight are focused on finding the solutions we need to address our biggest global problems and committed to collaborating to break down the barriers and roadblocks that stand in the way." Holmgren also congratulated Reinhold Schmieding, President and Founder of Arthrex, for the recognition of his achievements and innovations.
The Edison Awards also awarded LanzaTech's “CarbonSmart™ for a Blue-Sky Future” its Science Game Changer award.
"The scale of the climate crisis demands that we use all available tools to reduce greenhouse gas emissions as fast as possible," Holmgren said. “This requires cross-sector collaboration and innovation while ensuring social and environmental justice.”
LanzaTech has created a system that turns pollution from factories and other waste carbon sources into fuel, food, chemicals, and other products. Their first commercial site in China has been operating since 2018 and has kept over 100,000 tons of CO2 from the atmosphere.
The technology uses a microbe that ferments gases in a special bioreactor, producing ethanol .The company's ethanol has already been used to create sustainable aviation fuel and substitutes for plastics, rubber, and synthetic fibers and has been used in cleaning products made by Swiss company Mibelle. LanzaTech, in partnership with Indian Oil and the Indian Department of Biotechnology, has also used its carbon-capture technology to turn CO2 pollution into lipids and omega-3 fatty acids, which could then be used to make an array of products, from nutritional supplements to fish feed to vegetable oil replacements. The carbon-captured ethanol many environmental benefits: it reduces emissions at source, its products displace fresh fossil resources which can stay in the ground, and as it uses wastes and residues as a feedstock it doesn’t impact biodiversity or land use. LanzaTech sees a future in which our everyday products are all made from recycled carbon waste.
Both Holmgren and LanzaTech were chosen as the 2021 award winners by a panel of more than 3,000 senior business executives and academics.
"We were very impressed by the level of collaboration and discovery in this year's entries," said Edison Universe Executive Director Frank Bonafilia. "Somehow, while facing the unprecedented challenges of this global pandemic, companies around the world figured out how to work safely and smartly and still innovate at an award-winning level."
