LanzaTech secures top renewable energy talent

LanzaTech secures top renewable energy talent
Auckland NZ, November 1: LanzaTech has secured another prominent renewable energy executive, Prabhakar Nair, to join the company as Vice President of Business Development Asia Pacific.

He joins chief executive Dr Jennifer Holmgren and chief scientist Dr Sean Simpson, who were both recently named at number 38 on the Biofuels Digest international “Top 100 People in Bioenergy List”.

Prabhakar believes LanzaTech technology will play a vital role in meeting the Asia Pacific region’s ethanol mandates.

“LanzaTech’s ability to produce fuel from waste is essential for regions where food resources are so critical,” Prabhakar says.

He joins LanzaTech from UOP LLC, a Honeywell company, where he was most recently marketing director for its Renewable Energy and Chemicals business unit. In that role, Prabhakar was responsible for creating linkages and alliances with feedstock suppliers and end users of fuel technologies in the aviation and automotive sectors, tracking global biofuels legislation and developing the business unit’s strategic plan.

From 1999 to 2005, Prabhakar served as General Manager of UOP’s India operations. Prior to that he held a variety of Sales, Technical Service and Marketing positions in UOP’s other Asian offices as well as at UOP’s headquarters in the USA. He holds a BChE from City University of NY, a MChE from Illinois Institute of Technology, an MBA from Northwestern University and he is conversant in several Asian languages.

LanzaTech, established in 2005 with financial backing from the New Zealand Government and Silicon Valley-based venture capital group Khosla Ventures, has developed and demonstrated a proprietary microbial fermentation process that allows the use of a broad spectrum of waste gas resources for the production of lowest cost fuel ethanol and high-value chemicals.

Non food resources such as industrial waste gas can be used as a nutrient source for LanzaTech’s proprietary microbe. A pilot plant at NZ Steel in New Zealand has been successfully producing ethanol since 2008 using waste gases directly from the steel making process.

Dr Holmgren says the market for clean energy continues to grow rapidly in Asia, with many nations establishing national biofuels plans.

”Biofuel development in Asia could have a significant impact on agricultural commodity markets given that current technologies rely on food or farmed resources for feedstocks,” Dr Holmgren says. “LanzaTech’s process is ideal for this region because it uses existing waste gas resources as an energy source for fuels and chemicals production, providing energy security without reducing the availability of food and water.

“Prabhakar has a broad knowledge and wealth of experience for developing and executing business strategies and planning activities”, Dr Holmgren says. “We are excited to have him on board to lead LanzaTech’s business development in the Asia Pacific region.

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About LanzaTech Limited:

LanzaTech was founded in early 2005 to develop and commercialize proprietary technologies for the production of lowest cost fuel ethanol from gases produced by the steel industry. LanzaTech has expanded the focus of its process development program to include other industrial off gases and synthesis gas from gasification. Today the company employs a strong technical team internationally, has a rapidly growing patent portfolio and is making rapid progress taking its process from pilot to commercial scale. In 2010 LanzaTech signed agreements with Baosteel and Henan Coal and Chemicals to work, together with the Chinese Academy of Sciences, to accelerate commercialization.

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