Team:SJTang/Human Practices
HP Overview
Fig. 1A flowchart demonstrating the overall process conducted by the HP group
Background
Introduction: What initiated this project?
The next decade will be one focused on climate action. to achieve the goal of the Paris Agreement of restricting the temperature rise within 1.5°C, global carbon emissions are forecast to fall at an annual rate of 11.7% by 2030, five times the current rate,which means that the energy mix of countries and businesses urgently needs to transition to renewable and low-carbon energy in order to address the critical situation facing the world today.Based on the literature, as well as related energy and environmental policies, SJTang chose hydrogen energy as the output of our project. Hydrogen is an efficient renewable energy source, and the International Energy Agency predicts that global demand for hydrogen will increase sevenfold from 2019 to 520 million tons by 2070.
By investigating policies related to energy and the environment, the market demand for hydrogen as a clean energy source, SJTang visited relevant companies and policy personnel, and determined that our project has great potential, meets the market demand, and can contribute to emission reduction. Finally finalized the project.
Policies and Market Research
Our Work
We searched some of the most authoritative environmental policies published in recent years to understand the background information for hydrogen energy. These include the Paris Agreement and the United Nations Sustainability Goals. We also learned about specific policies released by the European Union, the United States, the United Kingdom, and China in response to the goals set for the Paris Agreement. As our project takes place in Mainland China, we also focused on the hydrogen energy roadmaps and plans announced by the Chinese central government. Meanwhile, we studied the feasibility of hydrogen energy in the energy market and analyzed its prospects and practicability (go to Policy for more detail). To better understand hydrogen energy, we made a questionnaire to collect opinions and understandings from people from different enterprises and ages. At the same time, we consulted experts in related fields and assessed our project's feasibility. Once we have determined our production methods, we have further communication and interviews with researchers in hydrogen manufacturing technology, chemical fuel cells and related industries.
Our Conclusion
Most of the environmental-based international policies favor the use of hydrogen energy. Most governments of developed and developing countries support hydrogen energy as a major energy source in the future because of its practicality and environmental benefits. (go to Policy for more details) According to the latest hydrogen energy market report, we also find out that the demand for hydrogen energy has been drastically increased in recent years, which shows a trend in dominating the future energy market. But hydrogen has not been widely used due to its high production cost, even though it is thought to be produced in a environmentally friendly way (go to Market Study for more details).
In order to better judge the market demand, we analyze the current hydrogen energy enterprise applications and existing hydrogen production path. It has been found that almost 95% of the hydrogen produced today comes from fossil fuels and will produce carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide at the same time. At the same time, although hydrolysis is considered a cleaner scale solution, the technology is still more complex and the yield is limited. To avoid carbon dioxide emissions, or air pollution, caused by hydrogen production from fossil fuels, we have chosen a lower-carbon and lower-cost biological hydrogen production approach.
Our Insights
In today's international environment, the need for hydrogen energy is a necessity. The high cost of mainstream electrolysis hydrogen production is not suitable for the market, and biological hydrogen production is not practical due to its low yield. Breakthroughs in hydrogen energy production are required. SJTang is committed to improving the production of biological hydrogen and expanding the number of suitable strains while maintaining low costs. The research and development of this revolutionary technology has high practicality and demand in the future. After discussing the improvement of hydrogen manufacturing technology, transportation and storage costs inregards with beneficial international policies and high market demand, the research and development of our project is highly feasible.
Therefore, based on the above three aspects, we believe that the biological hydrogen production scheme is reasonable.
Learn more about policy research
Promotion and Education
Why education?
Relevant educational activities are needed to give us a more direct sense of how people of different enterprises, ages, and classes view hydrogen energy and biological hydrogen production differently. No matter how macro policies and market analyses are carried out, the public is still the main consumption group. We need their opinions to better understand whether hydrogen policy leads to a positive start, whether people support the government's choices for hydrogen utilization in the future. Moreover, to effectively convey to the public the project intention, we also conducted public speeches and questionnaire surveys, so as to popularize the relevant knowledge. Furthermore, in order to broaden our minds and better understand the limitations of the project, we attended the Conference of China iGEMer Community (CCIC) to better grasp the advantages and disadvantages of the project.
Our work in education
Public Presentations
- We have conducted pre-synthesis in many schools, for example. To promote more people to understand synthetic biology, we face the current serious climate problems and industrial structure reform issues.
- Teaching materials & teaching tools
In order to further promote our project and popularize synthetic biology, we have created a teaching tool, which includes:
1. Guidance manual：We've built a guidebook that can help popular science in synthetic biology and our Climate action.
2. Questionnaire design：We designed the questionnaire to help more people understand the current harsh environment and the need for clean energy. (more details see Questionnaire & Analysis)
3. Lesson plan with ppt
See more details at Collaboration (https://2021.igem.org/Team:SJTang/Collaborations)
- Collaborations
We cooperate with teams from Southwest Jiaotong University, Tongji University, SCAU and SZ-SHD.
- Conference of China iGEMer Community
We participated in the Conference of China iGEMer Community and shared our ideas with the Chinese igemer team.
Discussion with the Shanghai University of Science and Technology team.
Insights gained from education
By hosting these events and participating in various workshops, we have gained a deeper understanding of synthetic biology, the hydrogen industry, and the strengths and weaknesses of our own projects. The results gained from the public presentation show a sharp polarization. Others are unaware of the importance of hydrogen or its current market prospects or don't even know what hydrogen is. While people are aware of global warming and other issues, they do not understand the urgency of carbon neutrality. Their understanding of synthetic biology is also limited. Seeing such reactions, we understand the need to popularize knowledge of hydrogen production. Meanwhile, many people have mixed opinions about the development prospects of hydrogen energy. Many people think that the rapid adoption of hydrogen will not change the situation anytime soon, as hydrogen's disadvantages are too evident. Others see hydrogen as the only breakthrough during the current energy transition. Almost everyone recognizes SJTang's project as a milestone in the development of hydrogen production technologies. There is general support for the project, but a few people fear that it may have a difficult time progressing.
HP Conclusion:
Using preliminary research, interviews with professionals, questionnaire surveys of the public and knowledge popularization in communities, we have deepened our understanding of the hydrogen energy industry. We have a clearer understanding of what the globe needs, what the international communities want to see and what people from working areas expect from the breakthrough of hydrogen energy production. We are aware of the importance of strengthening the dissemination of relevant knowledge. By sharing ideas with other participants and discussing the development prospects of biological hydrogen production and the limitations of the project with professionals, we gained a deeper understanding of what to focus on in our project. At the same time, all the information and results we gained helped us confirm that our project is in line with the trend of the times and the principle of low carbon and environmental protection, with a high feasibility.