Team:HK SSC/Human Practices
Introduction
Science and technology have always been motivated by a desire to address social problems. As a result, science would be meaningless if it did not have a relationship with humans. This year, we sought advice from experts based on the demands of our projects at various times to help us think how to improve our project.
Visit to Geb Impact Technology
One reason we decided to use a cyanobacterium as an expression chassis was due to its photosynthetic abilities that have the potential to ameliorate global warming. To achieve a better view of how such photosynthetic microbes can bring change to different aspects of the world and Hong Kong’s society, we visited Geb Impact Technology, a Hong Kong based biotechnology company focusing on providing microalgae cultivation services. Cyanobacteria and microalgae both possess photosynthetic abilities and hence are commonly engineered and cultivated in efforts to provide green alternatives to current unsustainable industrial productions. Through a substantial conversation with Dr. Alex Wang, Chief Technology Officer at Geb Impact Technology, and with two staff members, Eshan and KT, we gained insight into how development in technologies like the microalgae technologies can combat issues ranging from environmental concerns to world hunger.
The urgency to fight climate change is the main force driving Geb Impact Technology to develop microalgae cultivation techniques. The microalgae harvested can be further processed into marketable products, e.g. nutrition supplements. Producing commodities through microalgae has the benefits of being an environmentally benign technology and improving food security. Cultivating microalgae has the potential to produce large quantities of raw materials with cheap costs while lacking the release of harmful byproducts and removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. This is sustainable compared to farming techniques such as raising livestock.
One of their motivations is to promote education in STEM, which they’re already working with some secondary schools in Hong Kong. Like every place in the world, China including Hong Kong has been feeling the impact of global warming. One of Geb’s collaborators in Zhengzhou was caught in a flood caused by extremely heavy rain as we spoke, a victim among millions affected by increasing extreme weather events enhanced by global warming. The environment is changing beneath our eyes and it is our duty to take care of it. Geb’s development in microalgal technologies addresses this problem by providing a sustainable resource for industries to utilize.
Wang pointed out that photosynthesis reactions occurring in bioreactors are highly efficient under appropriate circumstances and can actually be quantified, being a force to push industrial processes. However, many companies share the difficulty of balancing the cost for the cultivation of these microbes. Some algae strains prefer cool living temperatures, and overheating of bioreactors often leads to the death of these cells. Therefore, many costs are spent on cooling the bioreactors.
Through this visit, we learned more about the impacts of algae technologies on the environment and community as well as the challenges of algae cultivation. After the visit to Geb Impact the major takeaway and response are that our selection of S.elongatus UTEX 2973 was a proper choice since it has a high tolerance to light and heat that allows flexibility of cultivation parameters, avoiding problems Geb had with algae dying due to overheating of bioreactors.
Interview with Hong Kong Research Institute of Textiles and Apparel
The Hong Kong Research Institute of Textiles and Apparel Limited focuses on supporting the development and marketing of innovation in textile technologies, for example designing new textile materials and developing methods to recycle garments.
Projects in these few years include the highly automated textile recycle station in Tai Po, garment to garment recycling in the mills, and textile fashion circularity. As the valerolactam produced in our project can be processed into nylon, we recognized that the textile industry will be part of our project’s potential end-users. So, we arranged an interview with HKRITA to learn more about the market and consumers in the textile industry.
HKRITA pointed out that there is a big demand for sustainable production of nylons. They also noted how businesses have begun to employ life cycle assessments to determine how environmentally friendly their products are. This demonstrates that the textile sector is interested in green options for textile products and that companies are putting green practices into practice. In terms of customers, not only in Hong Kong but around the world, more people are becoming conscious of the importance of sustainability. Consumers, on the other hand, are still lacking in the desire to promote green products, and the main driving factor for green technologies continues to be legislation and governance pushing industries to become more environmentally friendly.
From the interview, we learned that our project’s direction is in line with the demand from the market for an alternative production of nylon as it provides a green alternative for the step of producing lactam for nylon. They mentioned that the brands are into replacing materials or their production methods to be more bio-based and sustainable. As for the technical details reminders by the company, they mentioned that there are a lot of factors that may affect us like the purity, purification methods, yield, selectivity and we need to keep the balance in mind. We also learned that we should promote awareness of research and industries of green approaches to environmental issues among the public so they are more aware of sustainability issues and know how research and industries providing green alternatives can improve environmental issues.
Integration
To improve our project, we decided to investigate the proportion of chemicals in the BG-11 growth medium for cyanobacteria to maximize the growth of S.elongatus UTEX 2973, thus minimizing costs. Next year, we plan to dive deeper into commercial methods of harvesting cells and their products so that we can come up with a way to gather valerolactam synthesized by our transformed cyanobacteria. To promote education and awareness of synthetic biology, we designed a board game about facts and uses of synthetic biology so that players can learn about such research while having fun. Apart from promoting awareness and education, we would also like to assess and improve the efficiency of our synthesis design in the coming year. Methods can include monitoring and minimizing energy use and maximizing the purity and yield of the valerolactam produced.