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.
幾年前,我決心研究 是否有辦法生產生物燃料 使之量大到可與化石燃料抗衡 卻不會與食用農業 競爭水、肥料、或是土地
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.
以下是我想出來的方案 想像一個建造在水底下的空間 我們把它裝滿處理過的廢水 並加入會製造油料的微藻 然後這個空間的材料 將會是有彈性的 讓它能夠隨波移動 當然,我們建造的這個系統 將利用太陽能使藻類生長 它們會消耗二氧化碳,這是件好事 然後在生長的過程中製造氧氣 微藻生長的空間能夠將多餘的熱能 分散傳導至四周圍的水中 你可以收成它們來提煉生物燃料 還有化妝品、肥料及飼料的原料 當然,你得讓它附蓋很大的面積 所以你得當心其他利益相關者 像是漁民和船等等,但這都是小事 因為重要的是生物燃料 而大家都知道生產替代能源 是多麼地重要 為什麼我們要用微藻類?
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.
這個圖表顯示著 目前考慮用來生產 生物燃料的不同農作物 你可以看到像是黃豆 每英畝一年可生產五十加侖 或是向日葵、油菜籽 痲瘋樹和油棕 然後那個很高的圖代表微藻的產量 微藻每英畝可在一年內生產兩千 至五千加侖的油 和黃豆的五十加侖產量相比差異很大 微藻是什麼? 微藻是微生物
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.
也就是說,他們很微小 你可以看到這些單細胞生物 和頭髮大小相比的照片 這些微生物已經存在幾百萬年了 而且世界各地有上千種 不同種類的微藻 其中有些是世界上生長最快的植物 而且如我剛剛所說的 可以生產很多很多油
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.
那為什麼我們選擇在沿岸做這個計劃? 選擇在都市沿岸的原因在於 如果你觀察沿海都市 會發現其實別無選擇 這是因為如我剛剛提到 我們將利用廢水 如果你看看我們的廢水處理廠的位置 它們都在城市附近 這是舊金山 它地底已埋了總長 約九百英里的廢水管 並將這些廢水排放到海裡 世界各地的都市 處理廢水的方式各有不同 有些都市會加以處理 有些都市會直接排放 但是無論如何,排出的廢水 對於提供微藻生長是完全沒問題的 那我們想想這個系統會長什麼樣子 我們叫它OMEGA 它是「沿岸微藻生長包膜」的縮寫 在NASA,有好的縮寫是很重要的
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.
它將如何運作? 我剛剛已經敘述了大概 我們輸入廢水和某二氧化碳源 進入這些漂浮的結構中 然後廢水提供微藻生長所需的養分 而微藻消耗並固著二氧化碳 減少溫室氣體 它們當然是利用太陽能生長 然後海浪會提供動能混合藻類 而溫度將會由周圍的水溫所控制 就如我所提的,藻類將生產氧氣 它們也會生產生物燃料和肥料、食物 以及其他藻類生物副產品 而且這整個系統是自我封閉的 這是什麼意思?
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.
它是模組化的 假設其中一個單元 出乎意料外的停擺 它漏水了,或被閃電擊中 流出來的廢水是原本 就會被排放到海域的 而那些藻類是會自然分解的 正因它們原本存於廢水中 它們是淡水藻,這意味著 它們無法於鹹水中生存,所以會死去 我們將使用的塑膠材料 是一種廣泛使用的材料,效果良好 而且我們將設計這些模組 使之能重複使用
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.
所以我們有可能超越現況思考 來考慮這個系統的用途,我的意思是 我們需要考慮淡水的問題 淡水在未來將會是個急迫的課題 所以我們現在正研究開發 重複利用廢水的方法
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.
另外需要考慮的一點是架構本身 它將在海洋中為生物提供表面積 這些表面會被海藻 還有海洋中的其他生物佔滿 它將提升海洋的棲地生態 並增加生物多樣性 最後,因為它是在海岸邊的架構 我們可以想像它如何能夠增進 海岸的水產養殖活動
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.
所以你大概在想 "天啊,這聽起來真是個好主意" "我們如何試試看它能否成真?" 我已在聖塔克魯茲設立實驗室 在加州漁獵部的場地 那裡有設施提供我們 設立大型的海水箱 來測試這些想法 我們同時於舊金山設立實驗 在那三個廢水處理廠其中之一 一樣來試驗我們的提案 最後,我們想看看要在哪裡 能夠測試這個架構對海洋環境的影響 所以我們設立了一個野地實驗 在一個叫 Moss Landing 海洋實驗室的地方 位於蒙特利灣,我們在海港內實驗 看看這對海洋生物的影響會是什麼
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.
在聖塔克魯茲的實驗室 是我們的開發中心 我們在那裡培養藻類 融合塑膠、建造工具 和出了很多差錯 或是如愛迪生所說的 我們正發現這系統 無法運作的一萬個原因 所以我們在廢水中養微藻 並設計工具 讓我們能夠融入藻類生活 密切監測它們成長的方式 看如何讓它們開心生活 以確保我們培養的藻類能夠生存茁壯 而我們最迫切需要設計的東西 是這些生物光合反應器 我們簡稱PBR (photobioreactor) 這些就是將會漂浮於海面的結構 用某種便宜的塑膠材料製作 使微藻能在其中成長 而我們也做了許多不同的設計 大多都是失敗的作品 當我們找到一個成功的設計 在約三十加侖的大小 我們在舊金山把它放大到450加侖測驗
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.
讓我告訴你這系統如何運作 基本上,我們採用的廢水裡 內含經過挑選的藻類 並將之循環通過這個漂浮的結構 這個管狀、有彈性的塑膠結構 然後它將在這裡面循環 當然,太陽光會照在表面 然後藻類吸取養份成長
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.
但這有點像把你的頭塞到塑膠袋裡 雖然藻類並不會像我們一樣 因二氧化碳而窒息 但它們會因製造的氧氣而窒息 它不是真的會窒息 但是它們產生的氧氣是個問題 因為它們會把二氧化碳用完 所以我們的下一步便是想辦法移除氧氣 我們加了這個柱狀體 用來循環部分的水 並重新加入二氧化碳,我們再循環水之前 灌注氣泡在裡頭,解決問題 你再這裡看見的是設計原型 是我們第一次試著建造這個柱狀物 我們將大型的柱狀結構安裝於舊金山 在我們安裝的系統裡
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.
這個柱狀的構造還有一個優點 就是藻類會沉澱到柱子底部 這使我們能夠累積微藻體積 並方便收成 我們可以將累積於柱子底部的微藻移除 然後讓它漂浮在水中 再用網子從表面撈取 以大量收成
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.
我們也想要了解這個結構 對於海洋環境的影響 而我之前提到我們有實際於野外實驗 就在 Moss Landing 海洋實驗室裡 我們理所當然地發現這些材料 會被海藻覆蓋 所以我們需要設計一個清潔的方法 我們也觀察海洋哺乳類 和鳥類與此的互動 你可以看到一隻海獺 對這個挺感興趣的 牠不時在這個迷你水床中穿梭 我們好想要雇用這個小傢伙 或訓練牠幫我們清理 這些結構表面之類的 但那是未來的事
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?
所以我們真正在做的是 我們於四個方面進行研究 我們的研究範圍包含 這個系統的生物方面 像是研究藻類的生長方式 什麼東西會吃掉微藻 還有什麼東西會殺死它 我們於工程方面了解我們需要什麼材料 來建造整個結構 不止是小規模,而是如何建造 我們最終需要的極大規模成品 我有提到我們研究鳥類和海洋哺乳類 並全面評估它的環境影響 最後我們解決經濟方面的問題 我所指的經濟是 這系統需要多少能源來運作? 你能夠從系統提出 比所輸入的還要更多能源嗎? 它的運作成本多少? 它需要多少資本? 它整體的經濟架構穩固嗎?
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.
讓我告訴你,這不會是簡單的事 我們在這四個方面 都還有很多努力空間 才有辦法讓這個系統真正運作 但是我們時間不多,所以我想給你看 我們預計這個系統將會如何呈現 於一個想像的海灣 在世界的某處,在背景中 可見廢水處理廠 以及提供二氧化碳的排氣煙囪 但是當你算算系統的經濟收支 你會發現僅這樣是很難運作的 除非你把這系統想成 廢水處理的替代方式 並有固碳、結合太陽發電 或是海潮發電、風力發電等可能性 如果你開始思考 如何結合各式各樣的活動 你也可以在這個系統加入水產養殖 像是在這個系統底下 我們有貝類養殖 可以養殖淡菜或扇貝 我們可以養殖生蠔等等 可以提高經濟價值的食物和產品 然後利用這點來刺激市場 慢慢把系統越做越大,直到最後 將之作為生產生物燃料來源的理由 才有競爭力
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.
還有一個問題常常浮現 就是塑膠在海洋中一直有很不好的聲譽 因此,我們用綠色經濟概念觀點思考 我們要如何處理這些 我們需要在海洋環境中運用的塑膠? 我不知道你有沒有聽說這事 但是在加州,有大量的塑膠 現在正被利用於農田中 當作塑膠覆蓋物 塑膠在土壤表面形成極小的溫室 它可以提高土壤表面溫度 以延長生長季節 並讓農夫能夠控制雜草 當然,它也能提高灌溉效率 所以OMEGA系統 也將能發揮類似的功用 所以當我們於海洋環境的作法成功後 將會將它利用於農田中 那我們到底要把這個系統放哪?
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.
它在海岸線會長什麼樣子? 這個影像是將這套系統 用於舊金山灣的樣子 舊金山一天製造6500萬加侖的廢水 如果我們假設這系統的保水時間是五天 我們將需要容納3.25億加侖才能容納 差不多是1280英畝大的OMEGA系統 漂浮在舊金山灣中 其實那不到舊金山灣面積的百分之一 若以每年每英畝兩千加侖計算 它將生產大於兩百萬加侖的生物燃料 約等於舊金山生物柴油 或一般柴油需求量的20% 而且這還是尚未加強效率的計算
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)
我們還可以把這系統放在哪裡? 可能性很多 像我之前提到,有舊金山灣 聖地牙哥灣是另一個例子 莫比爾灣或是切薩皮克灣,但事實是 隨著海平面上升 將會有許多的新機會 (笑聲)
So what I'm telling you about is a system of integrated activities. Biofuels production is integrated with alternative energy is integrated with aquaculture.
所以我現在向各位描述的是 一個整合各種活動的系統 生物燃料結合替代能源 結合水產養殖
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.
我一開始是為了尋找一個 能夠永續生產生物燃料的創新方法 而在這過程中 我發現達到永續經營真正需要的 不是創新,而是整合現有的系統
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)
長遠來看,我有信心 我們的集體智慧能夠激出火花 我相信,幾乎沒有東西 能限制我們能達成的成就 只要我們積極求新 且不在乎最後功歸於何人 解決我們未來難題的永續方案 將會是多元化的 並有許多可能 我認為我們需要考慮所有方面 自 alpha (希臘字母的第一個) 至 OMEGA (最後一個) 謝謝 (掌聲) (掌聲) 克里斯.安德森(CA): 強納森,我有個問題 這個計畫可以持續在NASA內部進行 還是你們現在需要有企圖心的綠能基金 來注入資金並促使它完成? 強納森.特倫特(JT): 現在已發展到的階段是 NASA 有意願將這個系統實際 在海岸操作,但是在美國境內 有許多問題因為有許多許可限制 並且申請於外海作業的許可過程冗長 所以現在真正需要外界人士 而我們也很前衛的開放這個技術 我們基本上就要把它推出去 給所有感興趣的人 都可以試著把它實踐 CA:這真有趣 你們並不要把它變成專利 你們要將之發表 JT:一點也沒錯 CA:非常好,謝謝你 JT:謝謝 (掌聲)