NZ Company has petrol alternative 

A New Zealand company has a clever idea that could be the answer to our petrol worries.

It has discovered a way to make low carbon fuel from industrial waste gas, and it just received $12 million from the government to develop the idea.

"It truly is a low carbon petrol, a petrol equivalent, but manufactured from sustainable resources," says Dr Sean Simpson.

The unsustainable resources come from gases produced by steel, wood or rubber factories. Lanza Tech says its fuel can be produced from almost anything.

"We can take a whole range of resources, convert those into a gas and use that gas to manufacture our fuel," says Simpson.

And the good news is, it's cheap to make.

"If you make your fuel from low cost resources, the fuel itself will be low cost," he says.

The aim for the fuel is to completely replace petrol, and to be used in your car with out making any modifications.

"It will completely displace petrol, allowing us to run our vehicles on much more sustainable fuel than the fossil fuels that we run today," Simpson says.

The research is said to be a world first but Lanza Tech is not saying how it actually turns waste into fuel for vehicles.

As well as the government, the company is backed by businessman Stephen Tindall and billionaire venture capitalist Vinod Khosla, well known for putting his money in to alternative fuels.

"This is a technology that New Zealand will own ultimately or that will come from New Zealand and will apply through out the world," says Simpson.

The research is still in a pilot phase, and if successful, it could be running your car in just four years.