TEDxSantaCruz: Jonathan Trent - Fuels and Tools for a Sustainable Future

Jonathan Trent, NASA scientist and adjunct Professor at UCSC, wanted to understand what politicians meant when they said: "We need an Apollo mission for energy" and he began "Global Research into Energy and the Environment at NASA (GREEN)." Leading an interdisciplinary team of scientists and engineers, he investigated how tools developed for Apollo, and space exploration in general, could be applied to address some of the most pressing problems on "spaceship earth." Inspired by closed life-support systems developed for long-duration space exploration, he invented OMEGA—a system to grow microalgae, produce sustainable biofuels, clean wastewater, sequester carbon, and produce food and fertilizer without competing with agriculture for freshwater or land. The OMEGA project, supported by NASA and the California Energy Commission, is an ecology of technologies in which wastes become resources. An optimistic glimpse at the future and a reminder that we are not passengers on spaceship earth, we are the crew!

This TEDxSantaCruz talk is part of over 2 dozen surrounding our theme of "Engage!" This inaugural TEDxSantaCruz event was held June 11, 2011 at the Cabrillo College Music Recital Hall in Aptos, CA (Santa Cruz County). http://www.tedxsantacruz.org/

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In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. At a TEDx event, TEDTalks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. These local, self-organized events are branded TEDx, where x = independently organized TED event. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events are self-organized.* (*Subject to certain rules and regulations)

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[MrTimothytim]

This has already been developed by the Dutch university of Leiden but on land.

[S Chil]

Bollocks

[Menachmcpa]

Professor Trent, This was very motivating and it causes me to think of where i could get you some investors for your projects. I love it because it deals with a bio alternative for the energy development process. It seems very clean and remarkable, and also very simple in that it deals with the natural harvesting of algae from the sea and converting it to an alternative source of energy.I am proud of you, cuz.

[italouruguayricano]

This is a great project, I wish I could work on it.

[Citi5video]

Agreed, but we should treat our open system as if it were a closed system (the openness is representative of entropy/waste, and solar input.) However your point is valid and I personally need to stop using the "closed system" vocabulary as some parties take it the wrong way! Thanks for pointing this key nuance of language out :-)

[kyle92223]

Earth is an open system folks, not a "capsule". The sun is outside our atmosphere, and the energy from it enters our atmosphere. Infrared, and other spectrum of energy also reflect, or radiate into space never to be seen again.

Matter enters the system on a daily basis as meteorites. Matter exits the system on a daily basis, as helium, and hydrogen.

Textbook open system. And it's unpredictable, unless you claim to have magical powers of intuition, or are mocking scientific method.

[Alex Tulip]

Jonathan Trent's OMEGA project shows why algae is the only answer to the world energy and climate crisis. Algae could produce 100 times the oil yield of soy, and nearly ten times the yield of the best current land based biofuel, palm oil. Algae will put these first generation biofuels out of business, much as the petrol engine replaced the horse as a primary energy source. Algae can reverse the threat of CO2, if we deploy it immediately on planetary scale at sea, based on the OMEGA pilot.

[Brian Nelson]

Very, very interesting. Are the technologies for turning that algae into the fuel, animal feed, etc. developed already or coming along at the same pace that NASA's work is on this project?

Cheers from New Zealand