Recycled carbon emissions are coming to consumer shelves

A long-forgotten industrial fermentation process is allowing a small share of climate-changing carbon pollution to be turned into household products, with the first items available this year.

Backers say the process, known as gas fermentation, uses carbon captured from the air, industrial smokestacks, municipal solid waste or other sources to create “green chemicals” that can be turned into plastics, soaps, fabrics, perfumes and more.

“A lot of people think stuff like this is science fiction. They don’t realize there are already plants running,” said Jennifer Holmgren, chief executive of LanzaTech, a “carbon recycling” company based in Chicago but with operations worldwide.

Holmgren said the company’s process is similar to that used to make wine or beer, but instead of sugar its engineered microorganisms eat industrial emissions such as carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide and more to produce ethanol.

That, in turn, can be used to make the basic components for a variety of everyday products that typically rely on fossil fuels as their building blocks.

In April, LanzaTech, together with Unilever and India Glycols, announced a new laundry detergent made using carbon emissions captured at a steel mill in China.

In July, sportswear company Lululemon Athletica announced it would start selling clothing made with polyester yarn created through LanzaTech’s gas fermentation.

“It’s really about the circular economy - we imagine a world where you take your waste back and reuse it,” Holmgren told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.