… And Work With LanzaTech On Biobased Butadiene

Invista will partner with LanzaTech, a renewable chemicals start-up, on a process to make butadiene from waste industrial gases. The collaboration’s initial focus will be on producing butadiene in a two-step process from 2,3-butanediol made by LanzaTech from carbon monoxide-containing gases. The firms also plan to develop a one-step route to obtain butadiene directly from LanzaTech’s gas-consuming microbes. Invista, which uses butadiene to make adiponitrile, expects initial commercialization in 2016. LanzaTech already produces ethanol and 2,3-butanediol from steel mill off-gases at a pilot plant in New Zealand and ethanol at a larger, demonstration-scale facility in China.