FORBES Magazine Names LanzaTech One of America's Most Promising Companies

ROSELLE, IL--(Marketwire - Feb 6, 2013) - FORBES Magazine has ranked LanzaTech, a producer of low-carbon fuels and chemicals from gases, #48 in its annual list of the top 100 Most Promising privately held companies.

"It is a huge honor to be selected by the editors at FORBES and to be listed alongside so many incredible companies," said Jennifer Holmgren, CEO of LanzaTech. "The recognition is validation of our approach to reducing emissions through innovative technology and solid partnerships with major players in industries around the world. We are encouraged by this award to make even more progress in 2013."

LanzaTech has developed game-changing technology that converts local, highly abundant, waste and low-cost resources into sustainable, valuable commodities. The patented process uses a microbe to convert gas containing CO or CO₂ (from industrial sources like steel mills and processing plants) or synthetic gas generated from any biomass resource (e.g. municipal solid waste, organic industrial waste, agricultural waste) into fuels and chemicals.

In 2012, LanzaTech reached key development milestones when it became the first company ever to scale gas fermentation technology to a pre-commercial level. Working closely with its partner in China, Baosteel, LanzaTech successfully operated a facility with an annualized production capacity of 100,000 gallons of ethanol. The companies are now planning construction of a commercial facility. The success with Baosteel helped accelerate the development and commissioning of a second facility (also 100,000 gal/year), with Capital Steel near Beijing.

One metric never says it all. For the Most Promising list, FORBES strove for a holistic gauge of young, privately-held companies, trying to pin down their trajectories by looking at a slew of variables. Over the course of six months FORBES reviewed thousands of applications. The final assessment is based on growth (both in sales and hiring), quality of management team and investors, margins, market size and key partnerships. FORBES turned to CB Insights, a Manhattan-based data research firm that specializes in assessing private companies, to refine the search. Their MOSAIC software scans 45,000 sources to measure a company's health. MOSAIC gathers those myriad signals into a final score that FORBES uses as an initial guide in producing the list. After verifying sales numbers, speaking with each company and debating their merits and blemishes, FORBES produces a final ranking.

About LanzaTech
Based in Illinois, LanzaTech is a leader in gas fermentation technology that provides novel and economic routes to fuels and high value chemicals from waste gas streams. LanzaTech's unique process provides a sustainable pathway to produce fuels and platform chemicals that serve as building blocks to products that have become indispensable in our lives such as rubber, plastics, and synthetic fibers. LanzaTech's technology solutions mitigate carbon emissions from industry without adversely impacting food or land security.

LanzaTech has successfully scaled its technology to a rate of 100,000 gallons/year at its first demonstration facility and is currently commissioning a second pre-commercial facility in China, both using steel mill off gases for ethanol production. The company was founded in New Zealand and is now a global organization with full commercial operation targeted for 2013. More information is available at www.lanzatech.com