Bilal Bomani: Plant fuels that could power a jet

8,950 views ・ 2015-07-15

TED


Please double-click on the English subtitles below to play the video.

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Translator: Fran Ontanaya Reviewer: Morton Bast
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What I'm going to do is, I'm going to explain to you
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an extreme green concept
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that was developed at NASA's Glenn Research Center
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in Cleveland, Ohio.
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But before I do that, we have to go over
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the definition of what green is,
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'cause a lot of us have a different definition of it.
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Green. The product is created through
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environmentally and socially conscious means.
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There's plenty of things that are being called green now.
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What does it actually mean?
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We use three metrics to determine green.
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The first metric is: Is it sustainable?
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Which means, are you preserving what you are doing for future use
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or for future generations?
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Is it alternative? Is it different than what is being used today,
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or does it have a lower carbon footprint
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than what's used conventionally?
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And three: Is it renewable?
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Does it come from Earth's natural replenishing resources,
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such as sun, wind and water?
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Now, my task at NASA is to develop
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the next generation of aviation fuels.
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Extreme green. Why aviation?
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The field of aviation uses more fuel than just about
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every other combined. We need to find an alternative.
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Also it's a national aeronautics directive.
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One of the national aeronautics goals is to develop
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the next generation of fuels, biofuels,
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using domestic and safe, friendly resources.
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Now, combating that challenge
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we have to also meet the big three metric —
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Actually, extreme green for us is all three together;
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that's why you see the plus there. I was told to say that.
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So it has to be the big three at GRC. That's another metric.
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Ninety-seven percent of the world's water is saltwater.
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How about we use that? Combine that with number three.
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Do not use arable land.
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Because crops are already growing on that land
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that's very scarce around the world.
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Number two: Don't compete with food crops.
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That's already a well established entity, they don't need another entry.
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And lastly the most precious resource we have on this Earth
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is fresh water. Don't use fresh water.
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If 97.5 percent of the world's water is saltwater,
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2.5 percent is fresh water. Less than a half percent
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of that is accessible for human use.
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But 60 percent of the population lives within that one percent.
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So, combating my problem was, now I have to be extreme green
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and meet the big three. Ladies and gentlemen,
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welcome to the GreenLab Research Facility.
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This is a facility dedicated to the next generation
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of aviation fuels using halophytes.
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A halophyte is a salt-tolerating plant.
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Most plants don't like salt, but halophytes tolerate salt.
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We also are using weeds
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and we are also using algae.
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The good thing about our lab is, we've had
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3,600 visitors in the last two years.
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Why do you think that's so?
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Because we are on to something special.
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So, in the lower you see the GreenLab obviously,
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and on the right hand side you'll see algae.
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If you are into the business of the next generation
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of aviation fuels, algae is a viable option,
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there's a lot of funding right now,
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and we have an algae to fuels program.
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There's two types of algae growing.
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One is a closed photobioreactor that you see here,
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and what you see on the other side is our species —
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we are currently using a species called Scenedesmus dimorphus.
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Our job at NASA is to take the experimental and computational
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and make a better mixing for the closed photobioreactors.
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Now the problems with closed photobioreactors are:
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They are quite expensive, they are automated,
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and it's very difficult to get them in large scale.
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So on large scale what do they use?
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We use open pond systems. Now, around the world
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they are growing algae, with this racetrack design
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that you see here. Looks like an oval with
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a paddle wheel and mixes really well,
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but when it gets around the last turn, which I call turn four — it's stagnant.
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We actually have a solution for that.
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In the GreenLab in our open pond system
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we use something that happens in nature: waves.
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We actually use wave technology on our open pond systems.
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We have 95 percent mixing and our lipid content is higher
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than a closed photobioreactor system,
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which we think is significant.
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There is a drawback to algae, however: It's very expensive.
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Is there a way to produce algae inexpensively?
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And the answer is: yes.
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We do the same thing we do with halophytes,
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and that is: climatic adaptation.
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In our GreenLab we have six primary ecosystems
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that range from freshwater all the way to saltwater.
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What we do: We take a potential species, we start at freshwater,
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we add a little bit more salt, when the second tank here
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will be the same ecosystem as Brazil —
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right next to the sugar cane fields you can have our plants —
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the next tank represents Africa, the next tank represents Arizona,
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the next tank represents Florida,
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and the next tank represents California or the open ocean.
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What we are trying to do is to come up with a single species
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that can survive anywhere in the world, where there's barren desert.
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We are being very successful so far.
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Now, here's one of the problems.
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If you are a farmer, you need five things to be successful: You need seeds,
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you need soil, you need water and you need sun,
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and the last thing that you need is fertilizer.
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Most people use chemical fertilizers. But guess what?
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We do not use chemical fertilizer.
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Wait a second! I just saw lots of greenery in your GreenLab. You have to use fertilizer.
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Believe it or not, in our analysis of our saltwater ecosystems
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80 percent of what we need are in these tanks themselves.
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The 20 percent that's missing is nitrogen and phosphorous.
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We have a natural solution: fish.
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No we don't cut up the fish and put them in there.
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Fish waste is what we use. As a matter of fact
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we use freshwater mollies, that we've used our climatic adaptation technique
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from freshwater all the way to seawater.
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Freshwater mollies: cheap, they love to make babies,
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and they love to go to the bathroom.
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And the more they go to the bathroom, the more fertilizer we get,
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the better off we are, believe it or not.
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It should be noted that we use sand as our soil,
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regular beach sand. Fossilized coral.
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So a lot of people ask me, "How did you get started?"
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Well, we got started in what we call the indoor biofuels lab.
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It's a seedling lab. We have 26 different species of halophytes,
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and five are winners. What we do here is —
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actually it should be called a death lab, 'cause we try to
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kill the seedlings, make them rough —
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and then we come to the GreenLab.
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What you see in the lower corner
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is a wastewater treatment plant experiment
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that we are growing, a macro-algae that I'll talk about in a minute.
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And lastly, it's me actually working in the lab to prove to you I do work,
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I don't just talk about what I do.
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Here's the plant species. Salicornia virginica.
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It's a wonderful plant. I love that plant.
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Everywhere we go we see it. It's all over the place, from Maine
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all the way to California. We love that plant.
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Second is Salicornia bigelovii. Very difficult to get around the world.
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It is the highest lipid content that we have,
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but it has a shortcoming: It's short.
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Now you take europaea, which is the largest or the tallest plant that we have.
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And what we are trying to do
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with natural selection or adaptive biology — combine all three
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to make a high-growth, high-lipid plant.
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Next, when a hurricane decimated the Delaware Bay — soybean fields gone —
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we came up with an idea: Can you have a plant
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that has a land reclamation positive in Delaware? And the answer is yes.
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It's called seashore mallow. Kosteletzkya virginica —
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say that five times fast if you can.
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This is a 100 percent usable plant. The seeds: biofuels. The rest: cattle feed.
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It's there for 10 years; it's working very well.
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Now we get to Chaetomorpha.
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This is a macro-algae that loves
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excess nutrients. If you are in the aquarium industry
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you know we use it to clean up dirty tanks.
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This species is so significant to us.
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The properties are very close to plastic.
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We are trying right now to convert this macro-algae into a bioplastic.
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If we are successful, we will revolutionize the plastics industry.
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So, we have a seed to fuel program.
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We have to do something with this biomass that we have.
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And so we do G.C. extraction, lipid optimization, so on and so forth,
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because our goal really is to come up with
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the next generation of aviation fuels, aviation specifics, so on and so forth.
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So far we talked about water and fuel,
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but along the way we found out something interesting about Salicornia:
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It's a food product.
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So we talk about ideas worth spreading, right?
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How about this: In sub-Saharan Africa, next to the sea, saltwater,
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barren desert, how about we take that plant,
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plant it, half use for food, half use for fuel.
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We can make that happen, inexpensively.
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You can see there's a greenhouse in Germany
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that sells it as a health food product.
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This is harvested, and in the middle here is a shrimp dish, and it's being pickled.
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So I have to tell you a joke. Salicornia is known as sea beans,
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saltwater asparagus and pickle weed.
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So we are pickling pickle weed in the middle.
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Oh, I thought it was funny. (Laughter)
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And at the bottom is seaman's mustard. It does make sense,
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this is a logical snack. You have mustard,
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you are a seaman, you see the halophyte, you mix it together,
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it's a great snack with some crackers.
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And last, garlic with Salicornia, which is what I like.
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So, water, fuel and food.
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None of this is possible without the GreenLab team.
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Just like the Miami Heat has the big three, we have the big three at NASA GRC.
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That's myself, professor Bob Hendricks, our fearless leader, and Dr. Arnon Chait.
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The backbone of the GreenLab is students.
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Over the last two years we've had 35 different students
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from around the world working at GreenLab.
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As a matter fact my division chief says a lot, "You have a green university."
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I say, "I'm okay with that, 'cause we are nurturing
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the next generation of extreme green thinkers, which is significant."
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So, in first summary I presented to you what we think
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is a global solution for food, fuel and water.
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There's something missing to be complete.
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Clearly we use electricity. We have a solution for you —
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We're using clean energy sources here.
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So, we have two wind turbines connected to the GreenLab,
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we have four or five more hopefully coming soon.
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We are also using something that is quite interesting —
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there is a solar array field at NASA's Glenn Research Center,
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hasn't been used for 15 years.
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Along with some of my electrical engineering colleagues,
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we realized that they are still viable,
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so we are refurbishing them right now.
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In about 30 days or so they'll be connected to the GreenLab.
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And the reason why you see red, red and yellow, is
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a lot of people think NASA employees don't work on Saturday —
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This is a picture taken on Saturday.
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There are no cars around, but you see my truck in yellow. I work on Saturday. (Laughter)
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This is a proof to you that I'm working.
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'Cause we do what it takes to get the job done, most people know that.
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Here's a concept with this:
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We are using the GreenLab for a micro-grid test bed
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for the smart grid concept in Ohio.
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We have the ability to do that, and I think it's going to work.
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So, GreenLab Research Facility.
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A self-sustainable renewable energy ecosystem was presented today.
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We really, really hope this concept catches on worldwide.
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We think we have a solution for food, water, fuel and now energy. Complete.
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It's extreme green, it's sustainable, alternative and renewable
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and it meets the big three at GRC:
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Don't use arable land, don't compete with food crops,
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and most of all, don't use fresh water.
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So I get a lot of questions about, "What are you doing in that lab?"
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And I usually say, "None of your business, that's what I'm doing in the lab." (Laughter)
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And believe it or not, my number one goal
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for working on this project is
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I want to help save the world.
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