JENNIFER (SALEM) HOLMGREN ’81
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10 100 011 fueling THE FUTURE Written by STEPHANIE L. GRAHAM
Chemists and other scientists face a daunting technical chal- lenge: creating a sustainable future with equal access to clean energy for all. At the forefront of this renewable energy quest is Jennifer (Salem) Holmgren ’81, a chemist who recognizes there are many obstacles but prefers to view the challenge as “a global opportunity.” Holmgren has spent most of her career seeking solutions in the energy sector. During 23 years at UOP, LLC, a chemical technology company, she led the organization’s renewable busi- ness from inception to commercialization of several novel bio- fuels technologies. The author or co-author of 50 U.S. patents and more than two dozen scientific publications, she is known for seeking out new capabilities—like combinatorial chemistry, advanced characterization, new materials and modeling—to achieve change that will impact daily lives. After many successes and accolades along the way—she was the first woman to receive the Council for Chemical Research’s Malcolm E. Pruitt Award in 2003—at midcareer and midife she found herself ready for a new challenge. She was approached by New Zealand-based clean energy company LanzaTech, which utilizes gas fermentation technology to produce fuels from industrial waste gas or biomass syngas. “Being in an emerging market that could have significant impact—I love that!” says Holmgren, whose spouse is physicist Donald Holmgren ’81. “LanzaTech has given me the opportu- nity to take lab technology to commercial, staff my vision for the company and the technology, and grow it. It’s hard to pass that up.” She has brought to LanzaTech many years of experience com-
mercializing new technologies, as well as her global contacts in the energy sector. Holmgren, who spent her formative years in Colombia, believes her childhood and career-related travels to India and China have given her perspective on the importance of industrial growth and the impact of the lack of available energy. An international team drives LanzaTech, which has partnered with companies in the United States, Sweden, India and China
to help develop its product from pilot to commercial sale. The company is moving ever closer to this goal. In October, biofuel flight pioneer Virgin Atlantic and LanzaTech announced their partnership and work toward a new biofuel breakthrough: tech- nology that takes waste gases—primarily carbon monoxide from steel—and converts them to ethanol, which is then turned into drop-in jet fuel using technology developed by partner Swedish BioFuels. Holmgren, who is based in Chicago where most of the en- gineering and business development staff are located, says the Virgin Atlantic project is on track, despite the difficulties of the process. “We are using an organism that takes energy and carbon from a carbon monoxide molecule not from sugar,” she says. “The problem with that is CO, unlike sugar, is not soluble in water. Therefore, not only do you have the risk of the organism not producing at scale, but there’s also the risk of the reactor design not being effective in getting enough CO into the water so that the organism can pick it up. It’s a new reactor, a new organism.” LanzaTech also has teamed with China’s largest steel produc-
er, Bao Steel, to create a steel mill demonstration plant. “It will be a real litmus test as to whether or not we’re truly scalable and if the economics we’ve been talking about make sense. It’s our next big hurdle,” says Holmgren. If successful, Virgin Atlantic will launch a demonstration flight within 12–18 months, and a facility with the capacity to produce fuel for commercial use will be equipped by 2014. In addition to partnerships with the steel and refining indus-
tries, Holmgren sees LanzaTech doing more in the natural gas and biomass sectors, including utilizing municipal solid waste to make fuels and chemicals. She undertakes these opportunities and challenges with great enthusiasm and with a strong belief that “all things are possible with innovative ideas and teamwork.” “That’s what I was trained at Harvey Mudd to learn to do,” she says, “tackle the big, hard, ugly problems.”
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18 Har vey Mudd College FALL/WINTER 2011
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