So Much Average People Don't Know

Two very different companies working to mitigate climate change but with a common denominator: fermentation

When it comes to decarbonization, the list of areas to be addressed is long, and the list of potential solutions is even longer. You’ve probably thought about it from the perspective of an individual consumer, and what you can do to slow the problem down. It feels like you’re attempting to empty Lake Michigan with a teaspoon. Scale matters, whether it’s in power generation (like wind, solar, geothermal, nuclear), power transmission (our grid needs substantial changes), transportation, battery development, agriculture, the built environment (our homes and other buildings), and this list could go on for a long time.

One of the reasons it’s so difficult for individuals to take action is a lack of transparency and, as I found in learning a little about just two companies, understanding what goes into decreasing carbon output and increasing sustainability. Even if we collectively decided to start purchasing from companies working to mitigate climate change, by doing things like reducing their own carbon footprint and purchasing carbon offsets voluntarily, there are so many things about the process that are obscured from the average person’s view. 

Recently, I listened to an episode of the podcast Climate Tech Cocktails (which is entertaining and interesting). The guest was Edward Shenderovich, Founder and CEO at Synonym. Admittedly, I didn’t understand a whole lot of what Shenderovich said in talking about what his company does. Here’s what I picked up during that podcast: 

-fermentation is used in all sorts of ways to do a whole lot of stuff most people don’t know about or realize it can be used to do

-many companies and researchers and scientists are figuring out ways to use fermentation processes to mitigate climate change in a lot of different areas

-very few facilities exist for these different processes to be brought to scale 

Synonym works with investors to access capital to build facilities where these complex biomanufacturing processes can be scaled, allowing the companies and researchers developing new products and techniques to access them. From the Synonym website: 

“We provide investors with curated access to biomanufacturing infrastructure investments, an emerging asset class. We manage these investments on behalf of investors, with an emphasis on risk management and maximizing returns.” 

Just a few days after listening to this podcast, I read an interview with Freya Burton the Chief Sustainability Officer of a company called LanzaTech. In that interview, she does a fantastic job of explaining a super complicated process.

The thing that caught my attention was coming across the word “fermentation” in relation to climate change mitigation again in the space of a week or so. Here’s a quote from the interview where Burton describes LanzaTech’s work:

“Essentially, we ferment gasses instead of sugars, primarily to make ethanol that can be used as a building block to make lots of other things.”

LanzaTech captures the carbon emissions from industrial processes like making steel by integrating their plants directly into the facility so there’s no need for transporting the gasses they use. 

Early on LanzaTech was a fuel company, and they still do produce fuels, but now they are using their process for all sorts of other things including packaging of consumer goods, and they’re exploring making food. In the interview with AgFunderNews, Burton  said, “Right now, we’re focused on the conversion of these types of gasses into proteins, but we’ve also done work on producing omega-3 fatty acids from acetate. So for example we have a project with an Indian oil company which is looking at producing omega-3 fatty acids from algae that is fed on acetate rather than sugars.” 

Very much like with the podcast, I felt a bit lost reading about LanzaTech, but found it absolutely amazing that there are already ways to capture the pollution that is causing climate change and use it to make shampoo bottles, fuel, and soon even food. Climate change mitigation is incredibly complex at virtually every level.

Even though Synonym and LanzaTech are quite different companies, they both have a focus on complicated chemical processes that most of us don’t have any hope of understanding—but then most of us don’t understand how plastic packaging is made now, only that it’s not great for the health of the environment. Most of us also don’t have a deep understanding of capital investing, either, but it still happens, and investments in safer ways of manufacturing seems like a step in the right direction. If the economy can keep on functioning while decarbonization and energy transition happen, then it’s better for everyone.