SKOKIE, UNITED STATES: At LanzaTech's lab in the Chicago suburbs, a beige liquid bubbles away in dozens of glass vats.
The concoction contains billions of hungry bacteria, specialized to feed on polluted air - the first step in a recycling system that converts greenhouse gases into usable products.
Three Chinese factories are using LanzaTech's novel microorganisms to convert waste emissions into ethanol, thanks to licensing agreements.
The ethanol is then used as a chemical building block for consumer items such as plastic bottles, athletic wear and even dresses, via tie-ins with major brands such as Zara and L'Oreal.
I wouldn't have thought that 14 years later, we would have a cocktail dress made from steel emissions, said microbiologist Michael Kopke, who joined LanzaTech a year after its founding.
LanzaTech is the only American company among 15 finalists for the Earthshot Prize, an award for contributions to environmental activism launched by Britain's Prince William and broadcaster David Attenborough. Five winners will be announced on Friday December 2, and LanzaTech says it has kept 200,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere while producing 190 million liters of ethanol.
It's a small drop in the bucket when it comes to the actual quantities needed to combat climate change, Kopke concedes.
After 15 years developing the methodology and proving its feasibility, the company wants to increase its ambition and increase the number of participating factories.
Kopke says we want to get to a point where we only use above ground carbon, and keep it in circulation.
LanzaTech, which employs about 200 people, compares its carbon recycling technology to a brewery, but instead of taking sugar and yeast to make beer, it uses carbon pollution and bacteria to make ethanol.
In rabbit droppings, the bacteria used in their process was identified decades ago.
The company placed it in industrial conditions to optimize it in those settings, almost like an athlete that we trained, said Kopke.
Bacteria are sent in the form of a freeze-dried powder to corporate clients in China, which have giant versions of the vats back in Chicago, several meters high.