LanzaTech has developed a novel technology that recycles the carbon from local, highly abundant, waste, and low cost resources into sustainable, valuable commodities. The patented process converts syngas generated from any biomass resource (e.g. forestry residues, municipal solid waste, organic industrial waste, or agricultural waste) as well as waste gas containing carbon monoxide (CO) or CO2 (from industrial sources such as steel mills, refineries, and other industrial plants)  into a range of fuels and chemicals.

LanzaTech has demonstrated the production of over 25 new products from gas fermentation, including fuel ethanol or platform chemicals such as 2,3-Butanediol  (2,3-BDO), a four-carbon alcohol that can be catalytically converted to bio butadiene, used for production of everyday products such as rubber and nylon.


Proprietary novel reactor designs and optimized process chemistry also developed by LanzaTech, ensure efficient, continuous, single-pass gas conversion with a high selectivity to the product off interest. To date, this technology has been demonstrated with diverse gas streams such as biomass syngas produced from gasified biomass, gasified municipal solid waste, and waste gases from operating steel mills.

The company has scaled the process and successfully operated two 100,000 gallon/annum pre-commercial demonstration facilities in China.

LanzaTech’s Freedom Pines facility in Soperton, GA is home to a gasifier with a biomass feed capacity of 20 kg/hr. The gasifier supports a DOE project for the production of jet fuel and chemicals from bio-mass derived syngas from a variety of biomass feedstocks such as pine biomass and corn stover.

Dr. Harmon's primary role is policy direction and leadership on international legislative and regulatory matters and developing collaborative research and demonstration projects for LanzaTech.  She is currently serving as interim site manager for LanzaTech Freedom Pines Biorefinery in Soperton, Georgia. Dr. Harmon has over 25 years experience in project development and management with major industries, including UOP's Renewable Energy and Chemicals.  Dr. Harmon joined LanzaTech from Striatus Inc., where she consulted on policy, project development and combinatorial discovery for advanced technologies, including energy and renewable fuels.  After receiving her Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry from the University of Michigan, Dr. Harmon joined ERIM, a non-profit research organization, to conduct applied R&D for a variety of defense and other government customers.  Later she was a technical co-founder of Nonlinear Dynamics, a company specializing in applied pattern recognition and data mining.