Some years ago, I set out to try to understand if there was a possibility to develop biofuels on a scale that would actually compete with fossil fuels but not compete with agriculture for water, fertilizer or land.
几年前,我试图去了解 是否大规模开发生物燃料是可行的 这种生物燃料会与化石燃料竞争 而不会与农业竞争水源, 肥料或者土地
So here's what I came up with. Imagine that we build an enclosure where we put it just underwater, and we fill it with wastewater and some form of microalgae that produces oil, and we make it out of some kind of flexible material that moves with waves underwater, and the system that we're going to build, of course, will use solar energy to grow the algae, and they use CO2, which is good, and they produce oxygen as they grow. The algae that grow are in a container that distributes the heat to the surrounding water, and you can harvest them and make biofuels and cosmetics and fertilizer and animal feed, and of course you'd have to make a large area of this, so you'd have to worry about other stakeholders like fishermen and ships and such things, but hey, we're talking about biofuels, and we know the importance of potentially getting an alternative liquid fuel.
这是我想出来的 想像一下,我们制造一个封闭的容器 我们将它放在水下,用废水 以及某些产油的微藻填充它 这个容器是用某种柔韧的材质做的 所以它会在水下随波流动 当然,我们要造的这个系统 依靠太阳能来使海藻生长 有一点很好,海藻吸收二氧化碳 当海藻生长时,它们产生氧气 生长在容器里的海藻 将热量散发到周围水域 你可以获取它们,从而制造生物燃料, 化妆品,肥料和动物饲料 当然,这个容器的体积必须要足够大 所以你就得考虑其它的利益相关者 譬如渔民和船只,诸如此类,但各位 我们现在谈论的是生物燃料 我们也知道 获得一种的替代液体燃料的重要性
Why are we talking about microalgae? Here you see a graph showing you the different types of crops that are being considered for making biofuels, so you can see some things like soybean, which makes 50 gallons per acre per year, or sunflower or canola or jatropha or palm, and that tall graph there shows what microalgae can contribute. That is to say, microalgae contributes between 2,000 and 5,000 gallons per acre per year, compared to the 50 gallons per acre per year from soy.
可为什么我们一定要用微藻? 这个图表展示了不同种类的 被认为能够制造生物燃料的农作物 你可以看到一些熟悉的农作物,比如最左边的大豆 每英亩大豆每年出产50加仑生物燃料 再往右看还有向日葵,油菜,麻风树,棕榈树 然后最右边 那根最高的柱子展示了微藻的贡献 也就是说,每年每英亩面积的海藻能贡献 2000至5000加仑生物燃料 大豆只产50加仑,(和它相比简直是微不足道)
So what are microalgae? Microalgae are micro -- that is, they're extremely small, as you can see here a picture of those single-celled organisms compared to a human hair. Those small organisms have been around for millions of years and there's thousands of different species of microalgae in the world, some of which are the fastest-growing plants on the planet, and produce, as I just showed you, lots and lots of oil.
那么什么是微藻呢?微藻是微小的东西 非常非常小,正如你们现在看到的 单细胞生物体——微藻 与人类毛发的对比图 那些微藻已经在地球上存在几百万年了 而且世界上有上千种 不同种类的微藻 有一些是地球上生长速度最快的植物 它们生产,正如我刚才给大家看的,大量的油
Now, why do we want to do this offshore? Well, the reason we're doing this offshore is because if you look at our coastal cities, there isn't a choice, because we're going to use waste water, as I suggested, and if you look at where most of the waste water treatment plants are, they're embedded in the cities. This is the city of San Francisco, which has 900 miles of sewer pipes under the city already, and it releases its waste water offshore. So different cities around the world treat their waste water differently. Some cities process it. Some cities just release the water. But in all cases, the water that's released is perfectly adequate for growing microalgae. So let's envision what the system might look like. We call it OMEGA, which is an acronym for Offshore Membrane Enclosures for Growing Algae. At NASA, you have to have good acronyms.
那么下一个问题:为什么我们要在沿海地区做这个呢? 我们在沿海地区做的原因是 除了那些沿海城市,我们没有选择 因为我们要使用废水,正如我刚才说的 看一下大多数被废水灌溉的植物的所在地 它们都在城市里 这里是旧金山,拥有900英里的污水管 位于城市底下 这些污水管把污水排放到沿海地区 尽管世界上不同的城市用不同方法处理污水 一些城市将污水加工 一些城市只是排放污水 但是不管是哪种情况,排放的污水 都完全足够微藻生长 让我们设想一下这个系统的样子 我们称之为OMEGA 是Offshore Membrane Enclosures for Growing Algae (沿海微藻生长围场)的缩写 在NASA(美国国家航空航天局) 你必须有好的缩写名字
So how does it work? I sort of showed you how it works already. We put waste water and some source of CO2 into our floating structure, and the waste water provides nutrients for the algae to grow, and they sequester CO2 that would otherwise go off into the atmosphere as a greenhouse gas. They of course use solar energy to grow, and the wave energy on the surface provides energy for mixing the algae, and the temperature is controlled by the surrounding water temperature. The algae that grow produce oxygen, as I've mentioned, and they also produce biofuels and fertilizer and food and other bi-algal products of interest.
这个系统怎么运作?我刚才已经透露给你们一些了 我们把废水和二氧化碳放入 流动的结构中 废水为微藻提供生长所需的营养物质 他们隔绝二氧化碳,阻滞它们 作为温室气体进入大气中。 当然,他们适用能量来帮助生长, 表面的波浪能量提供能量 混合海藻,温度 被周围水温所控制。 就像我刚才所说,海藻产生氧气, 他们也产生生物燃料,化肥,和食物 以及其它海藻副产品
And the system is contained. What do I mean by that? It's modular. Let's say something happens that's totally unexpected to one of the modules. It leaks. It's struck by lightning. The waste water that leaks out is water that already now goes into that coastal environment, and the algae that leak out are biodegradable, and because they're living in waste water, they're fresh water algae, which means they can't live in salt water, so they die. The plastic we'll build it out of is some kind of well-known plastic that we have good experience with, and we'll rebuild our modules to be able to reuse them again.
这个系统是封闭的。是什么意思呢? 它是模型化的。让我们做一个 完全出乎意料的假设。 假设它漏了。或假设它被闪电击中。 流出来的废水是 原本就应被排放到海里的, 而那些藻类是会自然分解的, 因为他们本来就生活在废水中, 他们是淡水藻类,也就是说,他们无法 生活在咸水中,他们就会死去。 我们制造出的塑料是一种 广泛使用的材料,效果很好, 为了能使之重复利用,我们会重新构建模型。
So we may be able to go beyond that when thinking about this system that I'm showing you, and that is to say we need to think in terms of the water, the fresh water, which is also going to be an issue in the future, and we're working on methods now for recovering the waste water.
所以,当我们考虑我给你们展示的这个系统时, 我们可能要想个更远些,也就是说, 我们需要从水,特别是淡水入手, 因为淡水将是未来一个亟待解决的问题, 我们现在就在研究开发 重新利用废水的方法。
The other thing to consider is the structure itself. It provides a surface for things in the ocean, and this surface, which is covered by seaweeds and other organisms in the ocean, will become enhanced marine habitat so it increases biodiversity. And finally, because it's an offshore structure, we can think in terms of how it might contribute to an aquaculture activity offshore.
另一个需要考虑的就是这个结构本身, 它在海洋中为生物提供一个表层, 在海洋中,这个被海草和其他生物 覆盖的表层, 会改善海洋栖息地, 所以他会促进生物多样性的发展。 最终,因为它是海岸边的结构, 我们还可以思考它如何促进 海岸边的水产养殖多样性。
So you're probably thinking, "Gee, this sounds like a good idea. What can we do to try to see if it's real?" Well, I set up laboratories in Santa Cruz at the California Fish and Game facility, and that facility allowed us to have big seawater tanks to test some of these ideas. We also set up experiments in San Francisco at one of the three waste water treatment plants, again a facility to test ideas. And finally, we wanted to see where we could look at what the impact of this structure would be in the marine environment, and we set up a field site at a place called Moss Landing Marine Lab in Monterey Bay, where we worked in a harbor to see what impact this would have on marine organisms.
你可能会觉得,“天哪,这听起来 真是个好主意。而我们又该如何知道它是否成功呢?” 我在圣克鲁斯设立了一个实验室 我的实验室就在加州渔猎局的场地, 那个研究室可以提供给我们大型的海水池 来测试我们的一些想法。 我们还在旧金山设了实验室, 实验室就在三个处理废水的工厂之一, 这里也是用来测试我们的想法的。 最后,由于我们想知道我们在哪里可以看到 这个结构对海洋环境的影响, 我们在一个叫做斯兰海洋实验室的地方 设立了一个野外基地, 这个基地就在蒙特雷湾,我们在那的一个海港 研究这个结构对海洋生物的影响。
The laboratory that we set up in Santa Cruz was our skunkworks. It was a place where we were growing algae and welding plastic and building tools and making a lot of mistakes, or, as Edison said, we were finding the 10,000 ways that the system wouldn't work. Now, we grew algae in waste water, and we built tools that allowed us to get into the lives of algae so that we could monitor the way they grow, what makes them happy, how do we make sure that we're going to have a culture that will survive and thrive. So the most important feature that we needed to develop were these so-called photobioreactors, or PBRs. These were the structures that would be floating at the surface made out of some inexpensive plastic material that'll allow the algae to grow, and we had built lots and lots of designs, most of which were horrible failures, and when we finally got to a design that worked, at about 30 gallons, we scaled it up to 450 gallons in San Francisco.
我们设立在圣克鲁什的实验室是我们的臭鼬工厂。 我们在那培育藻类, 焊接塑料制品,制造工具, 而我们也犯了许多错误 或者,像爱迪生说的那样,我们 是在寻找失败的10000种方法。 现在,我们在废水中培养藻类,制造可以 干预藻类生活的工具, 这样我们就能监控他们的生长方式, 并知道什么使他们快乐和怎样确保 我们将创造一种环境让他们存活和壮大。 所以,我们需要开发的最重要的设备 就是光生物反应器,简称为PBRs。 这些光生物反应器可以漂浮在 由廉价的塑料材料覆盖的水面上, 这些塑料材料可以让藻类生长,我们进行了 许多次的设计,但大部分都失败了, 当我们的设计最终成功时 我们用的只是30加仑的容器,在旧金山, 我们按比例增加到了450加仑。
So let me show you how the system works. We basically take waste water with algae of our choice in it, and we circulate it through this floating structure, this tubular, flexible plastic structure, and it circulates through this thing, and there's sunlight of course, it's at the surface, and the algae grow on the nutrients.
让我给你们展示这个系统是怎样工作的。 我们将含有我们选择的藻类的废水注入其中, 然后我们让他们循环在这个漂浮着, 管状的,可折叠的塑料结构中, 废水在这个东西中循环 当然要在太阳照射下,因为它是在水面上的 这些藻类靠营养物生长。
But this is a bit like putting your head in a plastic bag. The algae are not going to suffocate because of CO2, as we would. They suffocate because they produce oxygen, and they don't really suffocate, but the oxygen that they produce is problematic, and they use up all the CO2. So the next thing we had to figure out was how we could remove the oxygen, which we did by building this column which circulated some of the water, and put back CO2, which we did by bubbling the system before we recirculated the water. And what you see here is the prototype, which was the first attempt at building this type of column. The larger column that we then installed in San Francisco in the installed system.
但这个有点像把你的头放进塑料袋里。 只是藻类不会像我们一样 由于二氧化碳而窒息。 他们窒息是因为他们产生了氧气, 他们也不是真正的窒息,但是他们产生的氧气 成了他们的问题所在,他们用光了所有的二氧化碳。 所以,下一步需要做的是知道 怎样把氧气排除,我们制造了一个圆柱体 水在里面循环, 我们在水循环之前把气泡打进去 因此CO2就被送了进去。 你们现在看到的这个雏形 就是我们第一次制造的圆柱体。 后来在旧金山 我们安装了一个较大的圆柱体。
So the column actually had another very nice feature, and that is the algae settle in the column, and this allowed us to accumulate the algal biomass in a context where we could easily harvest it. So we would remove the algaes that concentrated in the bottom of this column, and then we could harvest that by a procedure where you float the algae to the surface and can skim it off with a net.
因此,这个圆柱体事实上有一个非常好的特征, 这是圆柱体里沉淀的水藻, 这样允许我们把藻类生物量 积累在一个容易收获的容器里。 我们将把集中在底部的 藻类移走,我们就能按照程序 收获漂浮在表面的藻类 并有网子捞取。
So we wanted to also investigate what would be the impact of this system in the marine environment, and I mentioned we set up this experiment at a field site in Moss Landing Marine Lab. Well, we found of course that this material became overgrown with algae, and we needed then to develop a cleaning procedure, and we also looked at how seabirds and marine mammals interacted, and in fact you see here a sea otter that found this incredibly interesting, and would periodically work its way across this little floating water bed, and we wanted to hire this guy or train him to be able to clean the surface of these things, but that's for the future.
我们也想调查这个系统 对海洋环境会产生的影响, 我提到过,我们的野外试验基地是 在Moss Landing海洋试验室。 当然我们发现这种材料 会被海藻覆盖,我们就需要去 设计一种清洁的方法, 我们也观察了海鸟类和海洋哺乳类的相互影响, 你会看到一只海獭对此很感兴趣, 它时不时地穿梭于 这个小小的浮动水床,我们好想雇佣这个小家伙 或训练它能来清洁水面 那只能等将来了。
Now really what we were doing, we were working in four areas. Our research covered the biology of the system, which included studying the way algae grew, but also what eats the algae, and what kills the algae. We did engineering to understand what we would need to be able to do to build this structure, not only on the small scale, but how we would build it on this enormous scale that will ultimately be required. I mentioned we looked at birds and marine mammals and looked at basically the environmental impact of the system, and finally we looked at the economics, and what I mean by economics is, what is the energy required to run the system? Do you get more energy out of the system than you have to put into the system to be able to make the system run? And what about operating costs? And what about capital costs? And what about, just, the whole economic structure?
我们真正在做的是, 在研究四个领域。 我们的研究包括这个系统的生物方面, 包括研究海藻的生长方式, 也包括什么东西吃海藻,什么会杀死海藻。 我们用工程学来理解我们需要的东西 能来建造这个结构, 并不是个小规模,而是将建造 我们最终需要的大规模的成品。 我提到过我们观察过鸟类和海洋哺乳类 观察过这个系统对环境的影响 最终,我们也考虑了经济因素, 我所指的经济因素是, 要运行这个系统需要什么能源? 你是获得的能量多 还是投入到这个系统的多 来确保系统运转? 那运作成本呢? 资本又是多少呢? 整个经济架构有如何?
So let me tell you that it's not going to be easy, and there's lots more work to do in all four of those areas to be able to really make the system work. But we don't have a lot of time, and I'd like to show you the artist's conception of how this system might look if we find ourselves in a protected bay somewhere in the world, and we have in the background in this image, the waste water treatment plant and a source of flue gas for the CO2, but when you do the economics of this system, you find that in fact it will be difficult to make it work. Unless you look at the system as a way to treat waste water, sequester carbon, and potentially for photovoltaic panels or wave energy or even wind energy, and if you start thinking in terms of integrating all of these different activities, you could also include in such a facility aquaculture. So we would have under this system a shellfish aquaculture where we're growing mussels or scallops. We'd be growing oysters and things that would be producing high value products and food, and this would be a market driver as we build the system to larger and larger scales so that it becomes, ultimately, competitive with the idea of doing it for fuels.
这个可不是容易的, 在这四个领域中有大量的工作要做 才能保证这个系统工作。 但我们时间不多,我要给你们看的是 这看起来像是艺术家的构想, 在一个受保护的海湾 在某个地方,想象中我们的背景是 污水处理场 和排放CO2的管道, 但当你考虑到这个系统的经济因素, 你会发现这个很难运作的。 除非你看这个系统只是废水处理, 固碳,和潜在的太阳能光伏板 或者海潮发电或风力发电的可能性, 如果你开始考虑 结合这些不同的活动, 你也能把海水养殖算进去。 所以我们会在这个系统中加上贝类养殖 我们会生产蚌类或扇贝。 我们会生产蛎 和生产高价值的产品和食品, 那我们建造的这个系统将会带动市场 会发展越来越大, 最终会与制作燃料的这个想法相竞争。
So there's always a big question that comes up, because plastic in the ocean has got a really bad reputation right now, and so we've been thinking cradle to cradle. What are we going to do with all this plastic that we're going to need to use in our marine environment? Well, I don't know if you know about this, but in California, there's a huge amount of plastic that's used in fields right now as plastic mulch, and this is plastic that's making these tiny little greenhouses right along the surface of the soil, and this provides warming the soil to increase the growing season, it allows us to control weeds, and, of course, it makes the watering much more efficient. So the OMEGA system will be part of this type of an outcome, and that when we're finished using it in the marine environment, we'll be using it, hopefully, on fields.
所以,总会带来一个大问题, 因为在海洋里用塑料名声会很糟 所以我们一直在考虑从摇篮到摇篮(新的环保理念) 我们如何处理这些 将要用在海洋环境里的塑料呢? 我不清楚你是否知道, 在加州,有大量的塑料 用于地膜, 这些塑料就在制造这些小型的温室 是在地表面, 也提供了土地的温暖从而增加了生长季节, 也允许我们控制杂草, 当然,也有效地利用了水分。 所以,OMEGA系统将会加入 这个成果,等我们完成 它在海洋环境的使用, 希望我们会把它用于农地。
Where are we going to put this, and what will it look like offshore? Here's an image of what we could do in San Francisco Bay. San Francisco produces 65 million gallons a day of waste water. If we imagine a five-day retention time for this system, we'd need 325 million gallons to accomodate, and that would be about 1,280 acres of these OMEGA modules floating in San Francisco Bay. Well, that's less than one percent of the surface area of the bay. It would produce, at 2,000 gallons per acre per year, it would produce over 2 million gallons of fuel, which is about 20 percent of the biodiesel, or of the diesel that would be required in San Francisco, and that's without doing anything about efficiency.
我们要把它放哪, 它在近海会象个什么样子呢? 这是我们在旧金山海湾会做的一个图像。 旧金山一天产生六千五百万加仑的废水 我们假设这个系统的有5天的保水时间, 我们就需要容纳三亿两千五百加仑 那将是大约1280英亩的地方 在旧金山湾漂浮着这些OMEGA模块。 比起整个海湾表面 那只是不到百分之一。 每年每英亩按生产2000加仑来算, 它将生产两百万加仑以上的燃料, 那是旧金山所需生物柴油的大约20%, 或是旧金山所需柴油的20%, 这是没有算任何的效率。
Where else could we potentially put this system? There's lots of possibilities. There's, of course, San Francisco Bay, as I mentioned. San Diego Bay is another example, Mobile Bay or Chesapeake Bay, but the reality is, as sea level rises, there's going to be lots and lots of new opportunities to consider. (Laughter)
这个系统还能放哪呢? 也有很多可能性。 当然我提过的旧金山湾。 圣地亚哥湾是另一个例子, 莫比尔湾或切萨皮克湾,可现实是, 随着海平面的上升,将会有更多更多 新的机会可以考虑。(笑)
So what I'm telling you about is a system of integrated activities. Biofuels production is integrated with alternative energy is integrated with aquaculture.
我现在讲的是一个 融合各种活动的系统。 生物燃料产品整合了另外的能源 与水产业相融合。
I set out to find a pathway to innovative production of sustainable biofuels, and en route I discovered that what's really required for sustainability is integration more than innovation.
我将寻找一个途径 创新可持续生物燃料的生产, 途中我发现真正持续性需要的是 整合多过创新。
Long term, I have great faith in our collective and connected ingenuity. I think there is almost no limit to what we can accomplish if we are radically open and we don't care who gets the credit. Sustainable solutions for our future problems are going to be diverse and are going to be many. I think we need to consider everything, everything from alpha to OMEGA. Thank you. (Applause) (Applause) Chris Anderson: Just a quick question for you, Jonathan. Can this project continue to move forward within NASA or do you need some very ambitious green energy fund to come and take it by the throat? Jonathan Trent: So it's really gotten to a stage now in NASA where they would like to spin it out into something which would go offshore, and there are a lot of issues with doing it in the United States because of limited permitting issues and the time required to get permits to do things offshore. It really requires, at this point, people on the outside, and we're being radically open with this technology in which we're going to launch it out there for anybody and everybody who's interested to take it on and try to make it real. CA: So that's interesting. You're not patenting it. You're publishing it. JT: Absolutely. CA: All right. Thank you so much. JT: Thank you. (Applause)
长远来说, 我对我们的集体和连接的独创性很有信心。 我认为我们能够完成的几乎没有限制 如果我们是完全开放的 我们也不介意谁得到了荣誉。 未来问题的可持续解决方案 将会多种多样 并会有很多。 我们需要样样都考虑 从alpha(开头)到 OMEGA(结束). 谢谢!(掌声) (掌声) Chris Anderson:Jonathan,我有个小问题 这个项目能继续在NASA内部进行 或你需要一些有雄心的绿色能源基金 参与来掌管它的命运。 Jonathan Trent:现在在NASA已经到了一个阶段 他们有意将这个在近海搞出点名堂 在美国境内做这个有很多的问题 因为很多许可限制 和取得许可需要的时间限制 在近海做实验。 现在,真的需要,业外人士 我们将彻底开放这个技术 我们要在外面启动它 对任何对此感兴趣的人 承担起来让它成为现实。 CA:这很有趣。你们并不想申请专利。 你要公布它。 JT:是的。 CA:好,非常感谢。 谢谢。(鼓掌)