Biotech Initiatives in US Colleges
http://sustainablebiotech.wordpress.com/about/
Motivation
The 21st century is being called the Biotechnology Century. Where the 20th century was dominated by the development of technologies based on hard physics and chemistry that brought on the full promise and problems of the industrial revolution, the 21st century promises to be dominated by technological developments based on biology and the molecular operation of living entities. This will allow us to move beyond the crude and wasteful technology of the industrial revolution and replace much of it with elegant and efficient engineered biological technologies. To be sure, high value pharmaceutical and therapeutic applications of biotechnology were important in its early development and continue to be dominant but in the long run they only represent a fraction of the potential of biotechnology. Much recent academic and commercial activity has been applied toward the development of sustainable industrial biotechnology, particularly biofuels to supplement and eventually replace petro-chemical feedstock. Academic and commercial activity in this area will only grow over time and KGI should position itself to play a prominent role in its commercialization. The Sustainable Biotechnology Initiative will be an important first step in obtaining this position.
http://www.hmc.edu/academicsclinicresearch/interdisciplinarycenters/ces.html
http://www.pitzer.edu/academics/field_groups/environmental_studies/program.htm
Study of Algae - Phycology
Phyco: prefix; from the Greek, phukos meaning seaweed, algae; phycology.
Some very interesting reports on use of algae to capture and recycle carbon.
Microalgae as a source of liquid fuels. Final technical report USDOE -OER http://www.osti.gov/bridge/product.biblio.jsp?query_id=0&page=0&osti_id=6374113
Design and analysis of microalgal open pond systems for the purpose of producing fuels: A subcontract report USDOE
http://www.osti.gov/bridge/product.biblio.jsp?query_id=0&page=0&osti_id=6546458
Systems and economic analysis of microalgae ponds for conversion of CO2 to biomass.
Final report. US DOE
http://www.osti.gov/bridge/servlets/purl/493389-FXQyZ2/webviewable/493389.pdf
Look Back at the U.S. Department of Energy's Aquatic Species Program: Biodiesel from Algae; Close-Out Report. 325 pp.; NREL Report No. TP-580-24190 available on: http://www.nrel.gov/docs/legosti/fy98/24190.pdf
Greenhouse Gas Abatement with Microalgae http://www.co2captureandstorage.info/networks/networks.htm
Extract from
A Look Back at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Aquatic Species Program:
Biodiesel from Algae Biological Concepts
http://www.nrel.gov/docs/legosti/fy98/24190.pdf
Photosynthetic organisms include plants, algae and some photosynthetic bacteria.
Photosynthesis is the key to making solar energy available in useable forms for all
organic life in our environment. These organisms use energy from the sun to
combine water with carbon dioxide (CO2) to create biomass. While other elements of
the Biofuels Program have focused on terrestrial plants as sources of fuels, ASP was
concerned with photosynthetic organisms that grew in aquatic environments. These
include macroalgae, microalgae and emergents. Macroalgae, more commonly known
as “seaweed,” are fast growing marine and freshwater plants that can grow to
considerable size (up to 60m in length). Emergents are plants that grow partially
submerged in bogs and marshes. Microalgae are, as the name suggests, microscopic
photosynthetic organisms. Like macroalgae, these organisms are found in both
marine and freshwater environments. In the early days of the program, research was
done on all three types of aquatic species. As emphasis switched to production of
natural oils for biodiesel, microalgae became the exclusive focus of the research.
This is because microalgae generally produce more of the right kinds of natural oils
needed for biodiesel (see the discussion of fuel concepts presented later in this
overview).
In many ways, the study of microalgae is a relatively limited field of study. Algae
are not nearly as well understood as other organisms that have found a role in today’s
biotechnology industry. This is part of what makes our program so valuable. Much
of the work done over the past two decades represents genuine additions to the
scientific literature. The limited size of the scientific community involved in this
work also makes it more difficult, and sometimes slower, compared to the progress
seen with more conventional organisms. The study of microalgae represents an area
of high risk and high gains.
These photosynthetic organisms are far from monolithic. Biologists have categorized
microalgae in a variety of classes, mainly distinguished by their pigmentation, life
cycle and basic cellular structure. The four most important (at least in terms of
abundance) are:
· The diatoms (Bacillariophyceae). These algae dominate the
phytoplankton of the oceans, but are also found in fresh and
brackish water. Approximately 100,000 species are known to
exist. Diatoms contain polymerized silica (Si) in their cell walls.
All cells store carbon in a variety of forms. Diatoms store
carbon in the form of natural oils or as a polymer of
carbohydrates known as chyrsolaminarin.
· The green algae (Chlorophyceae). These are also quite
abundant, especially in freshwater. (Anyone who owns a
swimming pool is more than familiar with this class of algae).
They can occur as single cells or as colonies. Green algae are the
evolutionary progenitors of modern plants. The main storage
compound for green algae is starch, though oils can be produced
under certain conditions.
2 A Look Back at the Aquatic Species Program—Program Summary
· The blue-green algae (Cyanophyceae). Much closer to bacteria
in structure and organization, these algae play an important role
in fixing nitrogen from the atmosphere. There are approximately
2,000 known species found in a variety of habitats.
· The golden algae (Chrysophyceae). This group of algae is
similar to the diatoms. They have more complex pigment
systems, and can appear yellow, brown or orange in color.
Approximately 1,000 species are known to exist, primarily in
freshwater systems. They are similar to diatoms in pigmentation
and biochemical composition. The golden algae produce natural
oils and carbohydrates as storage compounds.
Use of Plankton to toxic pollutants in waer.
http://www.sas.org/conference2003/program.html#hemerick
Glen Hemerick
"Restoring Plankton"
Mr. Hemerick has won local recognition and financial backing for an experiment his is conducting on whether or not local populations of saltwater plankton can be manipulated artificially. His project has also drawn praise for involving local high school science students.
His project involves collecting and cultivating saltwater plankton in a laboratory environment. They are grown and released into Puget Sound, or into streams which flow into lakes, which have a history of toxic, or other undesirable plankton, with the hope that the former may compete with the latter.
Glen Hemerick is an amateur scientist and volunteer with the Clover Park High School Science Club in Tacoma, WA.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/08/080820163241.htm
Science News
Biologists Find Diatom To Reduce Red Tide's Toxicity
ScienceDaily (Aug. 25, 2008) — It’s estimated that the red tide algae, Karenia brevis, costs approximately $20 million per bloom in economic damage off the coast of Florida alone. Scientists at the Georgia Institute of Technology have found that a diatom can reduce the levels of the red tide’s toxicity to animals and that the same diatom can reduce its toxicity to other algae as well.
If scientists can learn to use this process to reduce the toxicity of red tide, they could reduce the vast amount of economic damage done to the seafood and tourism industries.
The research appears as articles in press for the Web sites of the journals Harmful Algae and the Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B.
“We found that red tide toxins can be metabolized by other species of phytoplankton. That holds true for both the brevetoxins that damage members of the animal kingdom and the as yet unknown allelopathic toxins that kill other competing species of algae,” said Julia Kubanek, an associate professor with a joint appointment in Georgia Tech’s School of Biology and School of Chemistry and Biochemistry.
Red tide is a dramatic case of an ecosystem that’s out of control. In normal seawater, K. brevis makes up about 1 percent or less of the species, but during a red tide, that share increases to more than 90 percent. Filter feeders such as oysters, mussels and clams ingest the dinoflagellate and become unsafe to eat. Fish killed by the red tide wash on the shore, which can be contaminated and essentially unusable to tourists for months at a time.
Kubanek and her researchers found in previous work that the growth of the diatom Skeletonema costatum was only moderately suppressed by the brevetoxins released by the red tide. So, they figured that the diatom might have a way to deal with the toxins. According to their study, they were right.
In one experiment, detailed in the journal Harmful Algae, Kubanek’s students grew the red tide algae along with the S. costatum diatom to test her group’s hypothesis and found that the samples with both organisms had a smaller concentration of brevetoxin B than samples without the diatom. They also tested the algae with four different S. costatum diatom strains from around the world and came up with largely the same results. That suggests that evolutionary experience with the red tide algae was not necessary for the diatom to resist the toxins.
In another experiment, covered in Proceedings of the Royal Society B, they found that the red tide algae was able to reduce the growth of the S. costatum diatom, but that exposure of the red tide organism to S. costatum makes the red tide less toxic to microscopic algae. That suggests that the diatom is somehow able to reduce the potency of red tide’s toxins.
“It could be that Skeletonema is degrading Karenia’s allelopathic chemicals just like it degrades brevetoxins. Or, it could be that Skeletonema is stressing Karenia out, making it harder to produce allelopathic chemicals,” said Kubanek.
What they do know is that the brevetoxins that harm oysters and other members of the animal kingdom aren’t the whole story.
“We found that when we took seawater and added purified brevetoxins to it, the live algae didn’t suffer much, so there must be other chemicals released by the red tide that are toxic to these algae,” said Kubanek.
How that’s done, isn’t clear yet, but Kubanek and her group are currently working on finding the answer to that question.
“What we do know is that this diatom, S. costatum, is able to undermine these toxins produced by the red tide, as well as the brevetoxins that are known to kill vertebrate animals like fish and dolphins,” said Kubanek.
If scientists such as Kubanek and her team can learn more about the strategies that microscopic algae use to reduce the toxicity of red tide, they might be able to use that knowledge to help reduce the poisonous effects the tide has on the animal kingdom, not to mention the damage it does to the seafood and tourism industries.
Kubanek’s research team for these studies consisted of Tracey Myers and Emily Prince from Georgia Tech and Jerome Naar of the Center for Marine Science at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington.
Adapted from materials provided by Georgia Institute of Technology.
Nualgi
Solution to Pollution
Solution to human waste treatment (Water pollution)
Solution to Carbon dioxide emissions and Global Warming (Air pollution)
By product – fish (increase in food availability)
www.nualgi.com/new and www.kadambari.net
* * *
Key Words – Phyto-remediation, bio-remediation, wastewater treatment, sewage
treatment, lake remediation, aeration, diatom algae, water pollution, polluted lakes.
* * *
All of us contribute to sewage and pollution.
We generate waste and flush it down the drain and it flows out as sewage.
In Indian cities one person generates about 100 litres of sewage per day.
We burn fossil fuel -
for conveyance – two wheelers, cars, buses, trains and aeroplanes,
LPG for cooking, and
electricity at home and office.
50 litres of petrol releases 150 kgs of carbon dioxide and 1 kWh of electricity from coal fired thermal power plants results in 0.8 kgs (Avg) of carbon dioxide emission.
The Problem:
Disposal of human waste is becoming a great challenge day by day. Rapid urbanization has increased the amount of sewage and higher population density has reduced the space available to set up STPs. Pumping and treatment of sewage is very expensive and lack of adequate sewage treatment facilities is resulting in pollution of lakes and rivers.
Higher CO2 in the atmosphere is leading to global warming.
The Solution :
Now there is a simple and effective solution within the reach of everyone to contribute directly to the cleaning up of sewage and to reduce CO2 in the atmosphere – NUALGI.
You are aware that aforestation leads to cleaner air, similar results can be achieved by growing algae in water. Algae are aquatic plants that also use photosynthesis to absorb CO2 and release oxygen.
Higher oxygen levels in water enable aerobic bacteria to grow and these breakdown organics in sewage into the base constituents, these are consumed by plankton or become harmless sludge.
What is Nualgi?
Nualgi is a plant nutrient in Nano particle size and this is used to grow diatom algae in any water including water polluted with sewage. It has micronutrients (P, Ca, Mg, Fe, Mn, Zn, Cu, B, S, Co, Mo, Si) in nano form (20 nano meters to 150 nano meters in size) and these are easily absorbed by the microscopic diatom algae (0.05 to 0.5 mm in size).
Diatom algae are aquatic plants that undergo photosynthesis and absorb carbon and release oxygen and they also consume nutrients like nitrates and phosphates, thus removing them from the water body.
Diatoms have a silica body and are eaten by zooplankton, these are in turn consumed by fishes, higher fish population attracts birds, thus polluted lakes and rivers are restored to their original glory.
Green and Blue Green Algae have a cellulose body and hence cannot be consumed by Zooplankton. Thus when these proliferate in polluted lakes the lakes become green in colour and smell due to the decaying organics and algae.
Nualgi dispersed in water looks like a solution but has very fine particles of the size estimated to be 20 to 150 nanometers. The particles are not visible to the naked eye or under compound microscope.
Nualgi is made by a complex process. The product has been patented, Indian patent no. 209364 dated 27/08/2007. PCT Patent has been also been granted.
