Bio-Based Ideas

Today, I attended a symposium organized by the San Diego Center for Algal Biotechnologies. This symposium started three years ago but has grown each year since then. This year the symposium is three days long and titled “Food and Fuels in the 21st Century”. Professor Kay and Mayfield both framed the relevancy of the symposium by mentioning that the increasing world population, our dependency on limited resources (fossil resources such as oil and phosphates, land and water) which are increasingly becoming scarce, coupled with stresses put on by global warming require an adaptive response by increasing the output of agricultural production to meet the need. Agricultural biotechnologies and algal biotechnologies can provide an answer to the challenges mentioned earlier. With this background, professor Mayfield introduced the first talk.

On slight tangent of the more usual "bio-based economy" talk of late, I thought I would share something a bit more eclectic but nevertheless fascinating. Recently, linked up a slightly different TED talk dealing with spider silk . I found another TED talk given by Professor Cheryl Hayashi. I had actually met Professor Hayashi once before. About 10-11 years ago, I invited her to Cal State Fullerton to give a talk about what she is researching. She graciously accepted back then. I can remember that back then everyone (from students to faculty members) was mesmerized by her professionalism, the exact mind displayed in her research,  and  most importantly the passion Professor Hayashi displayed for her research. I felt the spirit of her talk from back then in the following TED talk.

In this week's blog, I just want to share a 1 hour BBC documentary that I happened across on YouTube. For the general audience, I think this is a great video to watch. I also learned something new watching this. Get some popcorn. Sit back, relax, and enjoy the documentary!

Cover of Science Issue 335. It has been a while since we have done a journal club , and so today I thought I would write about an article I recently read. Adam J. Wargacki, who works in Yasuo Yoshikuni's group, recently published the above titled paper. In light of problems associated with the use of fossil energy sources (cost, scarcity, environmental impact, and geopolitical considerations), the search for new energy sources is starting to become more important. The paper in discussion today proposes that a coupled system consisting of brown macroalgae and engineered bacteria could be used. Of course there are more traditional biofuel feedstock sources such as corn and sugarcane. There a couple of hurdles such as the debate about “food versus fuel” and technical hurdles such as the degradation of lignocellulosic matter that need to be solved. We have previously discussed how microalgaecould get around the difficulties of corn and sugarcane in the production of bioefu...

Another interesting and inspiring talk from TED related to bio-based ideas was posted not too long ago.

(Source: http://i-solarpanel.yolasite.com/) Happy 2012 everyone! A new year means fresh energy, and new goals. With respect to this blog it means more posts of interesting ideas and concepts and perhaps deeper discussions of ideas previously mentioned. To start the year, I thought I would quickly make a mental note to myself about something I just listened to on "Deutschland Radio - Umwelt und Verbraucher" which translates into "German Radio - the Environment and the Consumer". Side Note: It's interesting that in the US, environmental protection and sustainability are often mentioned in conjunction with energy-independence, and security of the country while in Germany often times environmental protection and protecting the consumer are linked more often. Anyway, the topic of discussion was what to do with solar panels after their useful time is up. The German and European answer: Come up with legislature that require solar panel manufacturers to take b...

"Today's historic flight with United marked a significant milestone in the history of aviation, and demonstrated the commercial applicability of our drop-in fuel," said Jonathan Wolfson, CEO, Solazyme. "The U.S. Navy has demonstrated the effectiveness of our fuel in multiple vessels over the past year, and we are honored to be working with industry pioneers such as United and Honeywell's UOP to see this important next step in the commercialization of our renewable fuels." Solazyme's algae-derived renewable jet fuel, Solajet, was manufactured via Solazyme's proprietary fermentation process and renewable jet fuel processing technology from Honeywell's UOP. Solajet fully complies with the ASTM D7566 specification for Synthetic Paraffinic Kerosene from Hydroprocessed Esters and Fatty Acids, which specifies bio-based fuels intended to be blended with commercial jet fuel (Jet-A). To date, Solazyme has produced and delivered the largest quantities of ...