TEDxSanJoseCA - Jonathan Trent, PhD - Can We Cultivate Energy?

NASA Nanotechnology Scientist

To provide practical answers to critical questions regarding sustainable energy, Jonathan Trent initiated a project called "Global Research into Energy and the Environment at NASA (GREEN)." This project, supported by Google, led him to investigate biofuels that do not compete with agriculture. With a Ph.D. in Biological Oceanography from Scripps Institution of Oceanography, Jonathan turned his attention to the oceans as the energy frontier for biofuels and he developed a system called "OMEGA" (Offshore Membrane Enclosures for Growing Algae). OMEGA emerged from his knowledge of the ocean, his years of training in microbiology in prestigious labs in Germany, Denmark, and France, and his knowledge of engineering from his research at Argonne National Lab in Chicago and, for the last 12 years, at NASA Ames Research Center in Mountain View. The OMEGA project is supported by the California Energy Commission and NASA Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate.

www.nasa.gov/centers/ames/OMEGA/index.html


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Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• TEDx
• TEDxSanJose
• TEDxSanJoseCA
• English
• USA
• algae
• NASA
• green
• biofields
• Google
• oceanography
• OMEGA
• microbiology
• California
• aeuronautics
• sustainable
• energy
• environment
• California Energy Commission
• bay
• oceans
• pollution
• water
• farming
• membrane
• frontier
• offshore

[krishnasmurf]

I love the idea, and appreciate that he's getting the word out about how socially irresponsible arable land-based biofuels are. My main question is what kind of yield we can hope to get from limited wastewater sources; if it's only a few percent or less of US oil consumption then it's not a major solution (but maybe still worth doing). I'd love to hear the stats on this.

Thanks, Jonathan!

[zassounotsukushi]

It always seemed to me that the logical conclusion of the algae and global warming topics was an offshore system like this, but be careful. The problem with closed systems is the cost, and it needs to be abundantly clear why that isn't the case here.

I totally understand, the barrier for the system is non-rigid and therefore not subject to the typical prohibitive costs. But if this isn't feasible for some reason, the idea is blown. I'm most concerned with the circulation system.