Take fermenting grains, add the bacteria known as yeast, and under the right conditions you can end up with wonderful things like beer and bread. Now a new process lets makers take carbon dioxide or agricultural waste, put them through a process involving special bacteria, and end up with the raw material to make plastic bottles.
Lanzatech’s CarbonSmart process does this, and they have produced a practical bottle in the real world, specifically a bottle for l’Oreal Cosmetics. The bottle is made of PET, a type of plastic typically made from petroleum. The new PET, made from substances that otherwise would end up as air pollution, can provide 30% of packaging for food, cleaning supplies, pharmaceuticals, and other products as well as cosmetics.
CarbonSmart products can be used to make cleaning supplies, too. It makes sense when you consider that detergents are made from petroleum. And it’s clearly a good thing to do with carbon emissions. Lanzatech partnered with a Swiss company to create the products, and they are in ordinary stores in Switzerland now.
The value of innovation
Rexroth has been an innovative company since 1795, and continues to break new ground today. Naturally, we admire innovation. Yeast used for bread and beer was a game-changing innovation when people first started using it. CarbonSmart is a game-changer today.
So far, the company has converted 100,000 tons of carbon emissions into more than 20 million gallons of practical, usable ethanol. They celebrated by commissioning a special commemorative beer from a local brewery.
Sounds like a good way to celebrate.
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