Integrated Human Practices
Overview
Our team aims to give the resolution to reduce the cost in the process of making alcohol by conducting scientific research. However, without evaluating our social value, it is hard to determine the effectiveness of our products on humans. Whether the deducted cost of alcohol benefits everyone's welfare? Does everyone agree to accept this proposal? Or are there any hidden hazards in our projects? We don't know exactly. Thus, we carry out integrated human practice to gain a better understanding.
We write promotional articles, carry out social surveys, and consult medical professors to certify the social value of our project. Additionally, we visited the local alcohol-brewing factory to substantiate our idea further.
Interview with Prof.Xingzhou Chen
Dr. Chen is an associate professor of the Environmental Ecology and Biological Engineering Department at Wuhan Institute of Technology and the author of over fifty peer-reviewed articles. In addition, he has researched protein production and the Molecular biology mechanism of virus infection and has penned articles on the use of enzyme engineering. We contacted Dr.Chen for his expertise in the enzyme field of accessibility and application. Dr. Chen elucidated the role of glucoamylase, stating that autocrine glucoamylase is thought to correlate with the benefits of improving production efficiency and reducing the production cost of alcohol products.
Interview with Dr. Zhen Liu
Dr. Liu is an experienced industry analyst of alcohol production industry. He is familiar with the alcohol-making process. We seek advice from Dr. Liu about our research area. He pointed out that we should pay more attention to food alcohol production. That is because there is a replacing method in industrial alcohol production: chemical synthesizing. The efficiency of this process outcompetes the efficiency of the traditional alcohol-producing way. Besides, when we asked Professor Niu about cooperating with the local factory, he suggested that it would be good to become their supplier instead of their cooperator. Dr. Liu said that the business methods we could apply are asset-light-strategy and asset-heavy-strategy. For the first business method, our ingredients, including corn and starch, will be supplied by other factories. For another business plan, we are going to count on our own. We need to develop corps that can be applied in the alcohol-making process. Dr. Liu's suggestion sparked our initiatives and further refined our project.
Survey Results
Throughout the project, we send out a survey about the research on alcohol users. This survey reflects the importance of alcohol in daily human life. In our survey, we asked questions about the demand for alcohol for human beings. For example, we asked the people have you used alcohol products in your life and what you think about the price of the alcohol products. We got valuable suggestions for our projects. In our survey, we asked questions about the demand for alcohol for human beings. For example, we asked the people have you used alcohol products in your life and what you think about the price of the alcohol products. We got about 300 pieces of feedback from the survey. After we concluded our survey, we got five results. The first question reflects that the need for alcohol is enormous, especially the disinfection products. Secondly, most people think that edible alcohol and medical alcohol are reasonable; however, industrial alcohol price is expensive.
Summary of Maotai field trip
To get a better understanding of the alcohol-making process, we virtually visited the Moutai liquor exhibition. The guide of the pavilion introduced us to how to brew the Moutai baijiu. The way of brewing Maotai included many complicated steps. During the introduction, she mentioned that the booming local salt industry raised alcohol production, even if salt and alcohol have little connection. This makes us think that alcohol production can be varied by other external factors, including local economic situation and culture. Besides, the guide pointed out that Moutai only uses distiller yeast fermentation, which is the most traditional and inefficient way of making alcohol. This is because they have to withstand the long-lasting natural fermentation process, which usually lasts more than five years. When we asked whether they would accept our method, they refused our proposal because they had to ensure the taste and quality of the liquor.
Integrated Human Practice
Purpose
Our original purpose was to pose a solution to the shortage of medical alcohol during the coronavirus. During the discussion, Dr. Chen suggested that the ethanol we produce can be utilized as an alternative energy resource. We realized that our project could also focus on environmental conservation. With a high production rate of alcohol, the amount of ethanol production will rise simultaneously. People can use biodiesel to extract energy from ethanol. As a result, less greenhouse gas will stay in the atmosphere due to ethanol's low Carbon dioxide emissions. Thus, environmental conservation may work as another research purpose.
Accessibility
Our autocrine glucoamylase is different from normal glucoamylase in the market because of its materials. The yeast we tested would not frequently mutate because yeast is a safe strain with stable genetic characters. That means once we produce ethanol from this new yeast, the ethanol can be used in industrial alcohol, medical alcohol unquestionable. However, Dr. Chen warns us about the insecurity of the alcohol we make. So, we decide our alcohol may not be suitable for drinking alcohol which has many strict limitations. In conclusion, our autocrine glucoamylase is helpful in various fields after it begins production.
Design
According to Dr. Liu's suggestion, we realize the competition between traditional brewing and chemical synthesizing methods. So, we gather the advantages of traditional brewing methods and chemical synthesizing methods to support our claim. For the advantages of traditional brewing, the first merit is that people have easy access to the ingredients. People can gain the elements through domestic cropping, urban and agricultural waste, and natural biomass. Besides, the natural way of producing ethanol is sustainable and eco-friendly. Seldom air pollutants will be released into the atmosphere during ethanol production (R, 2020).
For the disadvantages of chemical synthesizing, the distillation process is not suitable for the environment. Distilling fermented corn or grain takes a long time and involves a lot of heat expenditure. The source of heat for distillation is mostly fossil fuel, and fossil fuels emit a lot of greenhouse gas, which is detrimental to the environment. In addition, vaporization requires the input of energy. Repeated vaporization and condensation of the mixture require tons of energy usage, which increases the cost of alcohol production. Finally, the chemical synthesizing process may incur some security issues. There are undoubtedly volatile and semivolatile organic compounds that cannot be removed from the distillation. If these harmful compounds are not removed before condensation, they will remain in the purified product (IWA Publications, 2021).
Reference
R. (2020, August 25). What is Ethanol Fuel and Advantages and Disadvantages of Ethanol. Conserve Energy Future. https://www.conserve-energy-future.com/ethanol-fuel.php
IWA Publications. (n.d.). Distillation Treatment and Removal of Contaminants from Drinking Water | IWA Publishing. Retrieved July 11, 2021, from https://www.iwapublishing.com/news/distillation-treatment-and-removal-contaminants-drinking-water
Distillation - an overview | ScienceDirect Topics. (n.d.). Distillation-an Overview. Retrieved July 11, 2021, from https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/chemistry/distillation