Bio-Based Ideas

Quick note to myself: Yesterday was a great day! The 2013 Nobel Prize was awarded to three professors: Professor Martin Karplus, of the University and Strasbourg and Havard University , professor Michael Levitt, of Stanford University, and professor Arieh Warshel, of the University of Southern California. This is great for several reasons: Firstly, USC is my Alma mater. USC now has 4 Nobel Prize holders over its life time and two over just the last 20 or so years! So go Trojans! Secondly, this is the first time I am aware of that a Nobel Prize went to a computational science related field for being able to merge quantum- and Newtonian-physics model into one coherent computer model enabling researchers to understand how chemical reactions happen in molecules of different complexities. I think this underlines the increasing importance that computers play in solving increasingly complicated problems.

Personal Interest Background  As of late, I have been fascinated by LED light technology because this technology has the potential to drastically reduce energy consumption for lighting solutions. In this quest for more efficient lighting, I found 40W replacement LED lights that use only 6 Watts while producing 400 lumens equivalent to a 66.6 lumens/W. That's not bad considering that an equivalent CFL consumes at least 9 Watts which equals a 44.4 lumens/W. The cutting edge of technology commercially available can be seen in the Phillips L-Prize LED 60 W replacement LED light which produces 940 lumens with only 10W (94 lumens/W!!!). For comparison, CFLs at this range have an efficiency of roughly 61.3 lumens/W. It appears that LED technology still has room to improve which it must to produce lighting solutions at the 100W replacement range. Companies like Osram, GE or Phillips have all announced their first entrance into these market segments. However, the consumption ranges from 2...

This is just a quick note on what's caught my eye in the last day or so: Two researchers from Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston successfully created what they call a "living laser". How did they use a living cell as a laser? I realized that I didn't exactly how a laser worked so I looked it up on Wiki. According to Wikipedia , "Laser" stands for " L ight A mplification by S timulated E mission or R adiation". To build a laser, you basically need a light source, some device that absorbs the original light source and then emits an amplified signal also called "gain medium". The key to lasers is that the light is uniform and does not scatter all over the place - it's one bundle of light. This is performed be some complicated sets of optical mirrors. Normally, crystals (like ruby) are used for the gain medium, but in this case, a kidney cell expressing GFP was used. So technically, a cell does n...

I have been for a while thinking now that it would be good to have a clear labeling system for products that are produced in a sustainable way from sustainable raw materials (which usually means bio-based). Well, today the USDA announced that a new, voluntary "Bio-preferred" label system was introduced that clearly labels bio-based products which the USDA defines as "those composed wholly or significantly of biological ingredients – renewable plant, animal, marine or forestry materials." The USDA hopes that the labeling system acts as a low investment high marketing return measure to promote the increased sale and use of these products in the commercial market and for consumers who wish to make educated and sustainable purchasing choices for their families. The labeling system is a small part in an overall strategy to decrease dependence on foreign oil, and increase the creation of domestic, green jobs.   For further details and regulations about the detail, I ...

It's the end of the year, and so many places look back onto the year and evaluate their accomplishments. So Biofuel's Digest , a leading biofuels news site, has looked at the industry and handed out a multitude of awards. The ones I consider the most important ones are: Company of the Year: Solazyme Tech of the Year (pilot): Lanzatech Tech of the Year (demonstration state): Taurus Energy, Sekab Tech of the Year (commercial stage): Renewable Energy Group Product of the Year (fuel): Amyris (Farnesane) Product of the Year (renewable chemicals): Genencor (Bioisoprene) Product of the Year (bio-based products): OPX Biotechnology (Bioacrylic) Of note also is that SG Biofuels (not to be confused with Sythetic Genomics) and Sapphire Energies mentioned in my previous survey also won some awards: Plan for Scale: Sapphire Energy Feedstock domestication project of the Year: SG Biofuels There are more awards and honorable mentioning. 2010 has been an exciting year for the sust...

Another curious observation made the science rounds the past week: wired, electric bacteria. Reading this article reminded me of a review article on dissimilatory bacteria I read before, and one of the most interesting talks I ever attended in my life titled "Eavesdropping on Bacterial Conversations" . What did they do? Figure 1. Conceptual diagram showing electric symbiotic relationship between G. metallieducens and G. sulfurreducens. (Source: http://www.geobacter.org/) Summers, who is Microbiologist working in the Lovley lab at the University of Massachusetts, was studying Fe(III) reducing bacteria in the soil. They wondered what would happen when Fe(III) reducing bacteria would deplete Fe(III) available in the soil. In order to study this question, the research group co-cultured two strains of geobacter bacteria: Geobacter metallireducens and Geobacter sulfurreducens . The research team thought that combining the former bacteria that can oxidize ethanol in ...

It's been interesting to observe how news of a EV from Germany has slowly spread across the ocean. Recently, according to a Deutsche Welle article, a modified Audi A2 which is all-electric, successfully completed 372 mile journey from Munich to Berlin on a single electric charge. This is very significant because the range of electric vehicles has always been the Achilles heals of the technology. Electric vehicles in the past have been limited by the low energy densities of the battery making EVs of the past very heavy and limiting their range to about 60 miles. The upcoming Nissan Leaf which will rely on a compact Lithium Ion battery can reach distances of 62-138 miles depending on the driving style. Although a significant improvement good enough to satisfy the needs of 80% of US drivers, the range is still significantly shorter than what a typical car using the combustion engine can do (about 300-400 miles). The Audi A2 is the first vehicle that can produce these ranges und...

As reported by Greentechmedia on September 28th, Phoenix-based Rosestreet Labs Energy (RSLE) has successfully tested a new prototype of solar panels able to convert between 25-30% of sunlight into electricity. For comparison, the current maximum for conventional silicon-based solar panel is produced by SunPower can convert around 22.5% of sunlight into electricity. So the increases by RSLE represent a quantum leap in efficiency increases. The efficiency gains come at a cost of increased production costs. RSLE aims to lower production cost to below $ 1.50 per Watt by 2014 which is a goal already achieved by some solar panel manufacturers today. RSLE claims to achieve this feat by combining silicon-based solar technology with other nitride-based alloys - in this case indium and gallium. The combination of silicon and indium and gallium nitride can make use of a broader spectrum of the visible light resulting in higher efficiencies. According to a 2005 press release , unlike conventi...