Solutions for sustainability

With all the talk about sustainability, scientific solutions are often overlooked in favor of different easier actions people can take to help the environment. One science has been devoting extra resources into researching a cure for the pollution that has taken over our planet, that science is biology, more specifically, biotechnology. A basic overview of this field is using biological organisms to make chemicals and products for more industrial use. This field affects many different fields like botany and ecology because of the different products it helps produce. There are many examples of biotechnology but this article will focus on two main examples to show the extent and effectiveness of this field in slowing the need for nonrenewable resources and the better management of renewable resources.

I. Biofuels

One example of biotechnology that is working today is biofuel. Why do scientists care about researching this avenue of sustainability? The answer to that question lies in the world’s dependence on oil and gasoline for transportation and power. Scientists believe that biofuel can be used “as a trusted and ‘green’ alternative to traditional gasoline” (BIO). The benefits of biofuel seem endless and as Brent Erickson, executive vice president for the Industrial and Environmental Section at BIO, put it, “We’d actually be taking carbon dioxide out of the air through plants, which we’d then use to make biofuels. It is a sustainable solution to our energy needs for the long term” (BIO). This means that the potential good that furthering research in biofuels would cause is endless. On top of affecting the existing pollution in the world with the plants that would need to be produced, biofuels release about thirty percent fewer emissions than conventional fuels. These are the enormous potential benefits of biofuel but in order to fully understand biofuel, one must know the different types of biofuel and the details about each. The different types of biofuel are 2 main types of biofuel, they are bioethanol and what is called biogas or green diesel or biodiesel.
Bioethanol is the most common form of biofuel. It is primarily made from corn (in the US) and plants that are high in sugar content like sugarcane (in Brazil). The main process of making bioethanol is sugar fermentation which explains the need for high sugar and high energy content plants. There are many advantages to Bioethanol, its “biodegradable, low in toxicity and causes little environmental pollution if split” (esru). Ethanol is a very viable replacement for the gasoline that is used in cars today. This is because it is a high octane fuel (meaning that there are a large number of hydrocarbons that are available to react with the oxygen in the air to go through combustion and produce CO2 and H2O). The reason why Ethanol is so good is because of its chemical structure. Normal gasoline is simple hydrocarbons that pull on oxygen from the air around the liquid to oxygenate and allow for the combustion to happen. This leads to an incomplete combustion of the fuel. Ethanol is different, the chemical formula for ethanol is C2H5OH. The important part of this chemical formula is that O or oxygen atom that is apart of the chemical. This means that the oxygen would already exist in the fuel itself and thus allow the fuel, as a whole, to burn more efficiently and more completely, thus reducing polluting emissions. Ethanol is already apart of the US gas system. There are 2 options, the most common of which is called E10 which is a blend of 10% ethanol and 90% actual gasoline. This is for more standard cars that can not use fuel that is too different compared to the normal fuel that is used. For more fuel flexible cars, there is E85 which is a mix of 85% ethanol and 15% fuel. This mix is undoubtedly better for the environment for the aforementioned reason that Ethanol allows fuel to be burned more completely, thus reducing the harmful emissions that fuel produces.
Ethanol production is an extremely beneficial thing for the environment as it serves 2 purposes. One that is more obvious, that is allowing for the more efficient burning of gasoline, but the other purpose is as or more useful. That extra bonus is that if the production of ethanol increased, then more plants would have to be planted and as such, more CO2 would be pulled out of the air and used for plants as fuel. Apart from this very obvious plus, there are many more positives that bioethanol has to offer. Bioethanol can help extend the existing fossil fuel supply which would shift humanity’s reliance on fossil fuels and other nonrenewable fuels. On top of this, the agricultural economies would boom as farmers would be able to grow more crops and sell more crops to a wider market. Distribution would not be a problem either as fuel transport can use existing fuel transport lines. Up to 5% of biofuel can be mixed with conventional fuel without needing any engine modifications. To summarize a little bit, bioethanol can be produced using environmentally safe methods like fermentation, be distributed along preexisting gasoline transportation systems, and can be used in most cars without the need for engine modifications.
The production of Bioethanol can be split into 2 parts, the hydrolysis part and the sugar fermentation part. The basic process is that the Biowaste that will eventually become biofuel starts out as a large mass of cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin, large carbohydrate structures that cannot be easily broken down. In order to break down these complex carbohydrates into the sucrose sugars that are used in sugar fermentation, they must undergo a process called hydrolysis whether by the use of dilute acids or by enzymes that break down the complex carbohydrates into their more simple form of sucrose sugar molecules. The lignin present in the biomass is used as a fuel source for the boilers that are used by the production plant. The 3 forms of hydrolysis are Concentrated acid hydrolysis, dilute acid hydrolysis, and enzymatic hydrolysis. Concentrated acid hydrolysis is when 70-77% sulphuric acid is added to biomass which has been dried to a 10% moisture content level at a 1.25:1 ratio of acid to biomass at 50C. Then, water is added to dilute the acid to 20-30% and then the whole mixture is heated at boiling (100C) for one hour. The product of this is a gel that is “pressed to release an acid sugar mixture and a chromatographic column is used to separate the acid and sugar mixture” (esru). The next method of hydrolysis is called dilute acid hydrolysis. This is a 2 step method, the first step consists of applying a .7% sulphuric acid to the biomass at 190C in order to hydrolyze the hemicellulose. The second step in this process is to apply a .4% sulphuric acid to the remaining biomass in order to hydrolyze the remaining cellulose. This remaining hydrolyzed liquid is then neutralized and collected. This liquid is called a hydrolate as it contains the water-soluble sugars which can be easily fermented. The last method of hydrolysis is called enzymic hydrolysis. This method is a more natural method and is still being researched. It is essentially substituting the acid in the previous 2 methods with enzymes to break down the carbohydrates into the sucrose sugars that are used for sugar fermentation. After hydrolysis, the sugar molecules must go through sugar fermentation to really form into ethanol. To do this, yeast is added to any sugar mixture as it contains the catalyst, invertase, which helps convert the sucrose into glucose and fructose. The glucose and fructose then react with another enzyme called zymase which helps convert the glucose and fructose into actual ethanol molecules. This fermentation process takes place over 2-3 days and between 250-300C. After this process is complete, the ethanol-water solution must go through a distillation process to achieve a higher concentration of ethanol.
Another form of biofuel is green diesel and the closely related biodiesel. The differences between these 2 types of diesel are minute. They mainly stem from the different ways that they are produced. Green diesel is produced using “microalgae, waste grease, or other lipid-rich feedstocks” (illinois.edu). Some view Green diesel as far superior than biodiesel because the production method is more natural and produces fewer greenhouse gases, however, the current infrastructure actually makes the production of Green diesel more costly for the producer and the environment. This is because the high moisture content of the biomass that comes in requires a high amount of pretreatment and separation. Furthermore, the commercial green diesel technology, hydrodeoxygenation, generates a lot of hydrogen gas that is produced by burning fossil fuels. This necessity of hydrogen gas requires there to be many hydrogen production plants which completely undermine the pros of green diesel. These shortcomings are however due to the outdated infrastructure and scientists are currently researching ways to help green diesel be produced more efficiently. This is the only real way that green diesel can be a real viable option. The only real difference between biodiesel and green diesel is that biodiesel uses fatty acid methyl esters as a fuel source.
The main advantage of producing biodiesel is that it can be produced using lipids and cellulose molecules as the process of production essentially just involves mixing these molecules with alcohols like methanol. There are many different ways to produce biodiesel. One way is taking place in already existing petroleum refineries. This process, called Traditional hydrotreating treats the biomass with hydrogen under high temperatures and pressures in the presence of a catalyst. The next method is like the process of making bioethanol in that it essentially is the same process. First, the complex carbohydrate is broken down into simple sugars, which are then fermented in the presence of a catalyst that will transform the sugar into a hydrocarbon. This process is called Biological sugar upgrading. Next is the Catalytic conversion of sugars. As the name suggests, there are catalysts involved. This process just has carbohydrates in the presence of catalysts which eventually break them down and rearrange the atoms into hydrocarbons. The next method of making biodiesel is called gasification. In this process, biomass is heated and then turned into syngas, or synthetic gas, which is then catalytically converted into hydrocarbon fuels. Pyrolysis is a process in which biomass is heated in the absence of oxygen, the resulting oil can be upgraded into hydrocarbon fuel either through a stand-alone process or by mixing it with crude oil. The last process that will be covered in this paper is Hydrothermal processing. This process uses high pressures at mediocre temperatures to decompose the biomass which is then catalytically upgraded to become hydrocarbons.
The usefulness of biodiesel is boundless. Biodiesel can be used to fuel transportation systems as a gasoline substitute as well as different industrial uses. Furthermore, biodiesel can be used in tandem with conventional gasoline to make the fuel burn more efficiently. Like everything else in the world, biodiesel is not without its own disadvantages. As of today, biodiesel is much more expensive than conventional fuel and as a solvent, it can wear down the rubber hoses in some engines. Biodiesel also cleans dirt from the engines but this dirt can clog filters which will need to be replaced more often. Furthermore, the distribution of biodiesel must improve to make it more accessible. On top of this, Biodiesel is susceptible to cold weather where the fuel will thicken into a gel, making it hard to pump.
From being a more sustainable version of the oil which humanity has literally built nations upon, to being able to cut down our food waste in a useful fashion, biofuel has many pros, however, as with everything in the world, it has its cons. More specifically, with bioethanol, the farmland it requires to be utilized properly takes away from valuable farmland that could be used to grow food that people could eat. As seen previously, Biodiesel is not without fault either, however many critics try to criticize the wrong thing about biodiesel. Many critics confuse bioethanol’s requirement of high sugar plants with biodiesel’s need for lipid waste products. The fact of the matter is that neither bioethanol nor biodiesel should be criticized in this way as bioethanol can use cellulose and other forms of biomass and biodiesel mainly use human waste, such as used oil or different vegetable oils.
In general, biofuels have a lot of promise, and the scientists who are researching to advance biofuels are making great progress. Biofuels are the road to a more sustainable future as humanity’s dependence on petroleum and oil has grown so significantly in recent memory. As humanity’s need for oil grows, the less of it the Earth will have. This is why investing in and bringing awareness to these biofuels is so important.

II. Agricultural Biotechnology

Agricultural Biotech, or Agritech, is the science of applying different Biotechnical advancements to agriculture. This includes genetic modifying, cloning, and more. This field has been changing the agricultural industry for years now. From making the biofuels mentioned in the last section possible to making vaccines and antibiotics from natural sources to making better, more efficient, more nutritious crops. The possibilities of Agritech are seemingly endless as new forces of nature develop over time like the heating of the Earth, the soil becoming more and more toxic to plants, or the increasing acidification of the oceans. These are just 3 ways that the Earth has been changing and making it harder for farming to happen. Agritech scientists are in a race against time as they try to continually adapt to the Earth’s ever-changing atmosphere and environment. It is very clear that previous investments in Agritech are reaping rewards by improving. Assistant US Trade Representative of agricultural affairs and commodity policy at the office of the US Trade Representative, Sharron Bomer Lauristen, has said that “[there are] clear statistics showing that [agritechnology] has increased yields, which translates into more food, and that translates into more income for the farmer, which is not only important here in the United States but in developing countries around the world” (BIO). Here, it is shown that as scientists deepen their knowledge about this subject over time and effectively communicate those ideas to the government and the agricultural industry, everyone will benefit. This is from the consumer to the farmer to the government to the Earth’s environment, further investment into Agritech initiatives is extremely beneficial for humankind and the longevity of the Earth.
A large part of Agritech is the genetic modification of crops. These genetic modifications can help crops “tolerate specific herbicides, which make weed control simpler and more efficient. Other crops have been engineered to be resistant to specific plant diseases and insect pests, which can make pest control more reliable and effective, and/or can decrease the use of synthetic pesticides” (USDA). In fact, the previously mentioned genetic enhancements make these crops “require fewer pesticide applications and enable crops to be grown with less plowing of the land … which improve soil health and water retention” (BIO). Furthermore, these biotech crops make it so that farmers have to till their fields a lot less. This lowers the overall carbon emissions associated with farming as tilling machines can run less frequently or not at all. On top of this, this improves the quality of the soil as there can be more crops planted as the crops pull carbon dioxide out of the ground and into harvestable parts on the plant which can be responsibly dealt with, also with the greater amount of crops planted, the carbon dioxide in the air can be absorbed more efficiently by these plants thus making these plants serve a dual-purpose. One is to be more efficient and better for humans and the other is to just improve the environment by just being there. Needless to say, these biotech crops have countless advantages.
So how are these crops made? This process is called Genetic Modification or GM for short. GM is essentially man-made evolution where scientists identify favorable genes and pull them out of plant cells of plants that exhibit those favorable traits and insert them into another plant that does not have that trait in the effort to create a better plant. This can be done by breeding plants of the same or different species with desirable traits. Sometimes, natural plants do not exhibit favorable traits. In these cases, scientists may do a process in which they just bombard different plant cells with DNA loaded onto particles which they will launch at the plant cells which will eventually stick on. Another way that scientists can edit the genes of plants is with a bacteria or virus. In these cases, they will most likely use a bacteria called CRISPR-Cas9 as it is the most popular GM tool. This process “uses site-directed nucleases to target and modify DNA with great accuracy” (isaaa). What CRISPR is and how it works can be explained in 2 ways, a more basic way and a more complicated, technical way. This is the technical way:
“The CRISPR-Cas9 system is perhaps the most remarkable recent breakthrough in genome editing technology. CRISPR is a ubiquitous family of clustered repetitive DNA elements present in 90% of Archaea and 40% of sequenced Bacteria. CRISPR arrays consist of interspersed identical REPEAT sequences (21-48bp) and several unique invader-targeting SPACER sequences (26-72bp). The CRISPR-Cas9 genome editing system consists of two components: a “guide” RNA (gRNA) and a non-specific CRISPR-associated endonuclease (Cas9). The Cas9 protein is an endonuclease that uses gRNA to form base pairs with DNA target sequences, enabling Cas9 to introduce a site-specific double-stranded break in the DNA. Through RNA-directed Cas9 nucleases, the CRISPR-Cas9 system can modify DNA with greater precision than existing technologies” (Synbiotech).
The more basic way of explaining this is that cluster of DNA. This DNA is then inserted into the organism’s existing DNA by gRNA and Cas9 which is a protein that separates the existing double helix into 2 single strands of DNA. These strands then meet up with the gRNA which for base pair between the single strands. After this, the Cas9 is detached from the organism’s DNA.
There are numerous advantages of CRISPR over other gene modding technologies. The biggest advantage is that CRISPR-Cas9 is very simple and efficient. Because CRISPR is applied to an embryo, it makes it so that it greatly reduces the time needed to modify the target genes. This is all in comparison to other gene modification technologies as they work on the embryonic stem cells. CRISPR-Cas9 is superior to another GM technology, TALEN, because it can be used to easily analyze the genetic information related to the desired expressions or phenotypes. Another feature that makes CRISPR-Cas9 so easy to use is how it works. CRISPR depends on the RNA to guide where to insert the new DNA. This process is much easier than the existing processes that use Protein and DNA recognition. The reason why this makes CRISPR so much easier to use is that rather than analyzing the whole chain of DNA, scientists can just insert CRISPR into any spot on the DNA strand that has the necessary base pairs. To sum it up, “the simplicity of CRISPR-Cas9 programming and its capacity for multiplexed target recognition” as well as the fact that it is very cost-effective are the main advantages of using CRISPR technology and are the main reason for why this technology is so popular today (Synbiotech).
CRISPR is used in the agricultural industry as a way to “improve traits, such as yield, plant architecture, plant aesthetics, and disease tolerance” (isaaa). There are 2 examples of this happening in the world already. Syngenta Biotechnology China has already begun using CRISPR technology to help with rice yields. They did this by deleting fragments of DNA from the Indica rice DNA. The scientists there later observed an increased crop yield as rice began to grow in a more dense area and the crops themselves were shorter in height. Another example of how CRISPR is already at work in the real world to help with agricultural sustainability is at the Chinese Acadamy of Agricultural Sciences and National Center of Citrus Variety and Southwest Unversity. There they used CRISPR to alter the genes of different citrus fruit to make them resistant to citrus canker which is a serious disease to citrus plants. They did this by enhancing a certain gene to fight the citrus canker disease.
The US meat industry causes a lot of pollution. In fact, it causes 8% of all greenhouse gas emissions per year as it releases 574 million tons of CO2 into the atmosphere. It does not stop at just CO2 emissions. The US meat industry also releases a lot of methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (NO). Worldwide, the pollution produced by livestock jumps to about 14.5 to 18% of human-produced greenhouse gas emissions annually and that isn’t even counting the effect of the industrial fertilizers that companies use to feed their animals. This is why the investment and interest from food companies to produce plant-based meats is so important. By in large, plant-based meats are a lot better for the environment than naturally produced meats. Plant-based meats affect almost every area of the farming process including but not limited to land use, to greenhouse gas emissions, to water use. In terms of land use, plant-based meats take up an average of 93% less land than conventional meat does. In fact, the current system of meat production takes up 77% of the world’s agricultural land but only accounts for 17% of our food. In terms of greenhouse gas emissions, plant-based meats produce an average of 88.5% less greenhouse gas emissions as the raising of animals for the meat industry is a bigger driver of global climate change than all the exhaust from the entire transportation sector. In terms of water usage, plant-based meats save a median of 95.5% of all water used in the production of conventional meats which use a third of all the water used for agriculture.
The last example of Agritech that will be covered here is indoor farming systems. Agricool is a French company that organic fruits in shipping containers. Their process only uses renewable energy while using 90% less water and nutrients. This company is looking to expand into other markets. In California, another company by the name of Plenty is expanding its system of indoor, vertical farming into China to begin the production of produce indoors. These systems work on a closed-loop system in which aeroponics systems will mist roots of plants with water, nutrients, and oxygen. Along with LED lights as a sunlight substitute, these farms are far less resource-intensive when compared to conventional farming. Obviously, a big advantage of using these systems is how they save natural resources but another reason why these indoor farms are so beneficial for the environment is the fact that they can be placed in cities and more urban environments. This cuts down on transportation times and distances thus lessening the effect of greenhouse gases produced by the exhausts of transport vehicles.
There are many more ways in which agritech positively affects the environment through different sustainability technologies but these 3 are just the specific technologies that stood out the most in terms of how well they benefit the environment.

III. My Opinion

Now that we all have the facts, I would like to offer my opinion on how biotech is really pushing and extending the limits of sustainability. First, biofuels. As I reported previously in section 1, biofuels are super beneficial to the environment. Those who think that biofuels are not a viable option and are thus not worth the investment are completely wrong in my opinion. Most biofuels use food waste and natural biomass that we humans would normally throw away, thus eliminating much of our waste and further making our environment better. Additionally, most biofuels have the option of using new plant matter. This further encourages the growth of power crops thus decreasing CO2 emissions in the air and also giving farmers a lucrative industry to sell to. To address the transportation concerns, biofuels can be transported along the same lines as conventional fuels are transported today. This eliminates the need to construct new means of transportation. On top of all these reasons, biofuel is just objectively more efficient and better for the environment when compared to the fuels of today. The fact of the matter is that biofuels are just better than normal fuels but there are people who argue against biofuels. These people argue that the methods which we use to make biofuels release more greenhouse gases than the fuels save or that these processes produce harmful waste products that pollute the environment. My personal rebuttal from my own understanding on the topic is that while some processes produce harmful chemicals that pollute the environment, it is so minuscule that those pollutants are negligible in the grand scheme of things and furthermore, if these groups of people would be willing to fund biotech companies more instead of further depending on oil and gas companies to do the biotech research for them, maybe the biotech companies would have found a way to do away with the harmful pollutants. However, rather than funding these biotech companies, many oil and gas companies are receiving contracts to produce biofuels. This runs directly against their already established profit stream so it is in their best interest not to continue these research projects that hurt their bottom line. This results in no research getting done and these oil and gas companies just continue to get bigger and bigger until they become America’s main fuel source and we, as a nation become dependent on those companies. Without getting into the politics, I just want to say that in my opinion, biofuels are a field that we must invest in if we are to progress as a civilization because, without it, our dependency on fossil fuels and nonrenewable materials will doom us all.
Up next is agricultural biotech otherwise known as agritech. Agritech is a very important industry in my opinion as we run into food shortages worldwide and the population of the world grows. If we can have vertical farms that expand upwards instead of sideways, then I think that we can save a lot of space and allow for more housing. Furthermore, these vertical farms require significantly fewer resources. Additionally, with technologies like CRISPR, gene modification is possible and with it, we can now make more efficient plants whether it’s in the vein of plants being better producers or whether they become better power plants that can be used to make biofuels or anything else we can think of really. Furthermore, with CRISPR technology, we can now make more environmentally resistant plants which means that we can adapt to the ever-changing world. With our dependence on nonrenewables growing, the more polluted our planet becomes, and the more unnatural our farmland and earth becomes. This makes it so that it is increasingly hard to grow plants for animal farming or to feed humans. Speaking of animal farming, even though it is widely looked down upon or viewed as weird and hipstery, plant-based meats are the way of the future. This change will be very jarring for meat-lovers like myself but I firmly believe that plant-based meat companies are innovators as they have managed to produce a product that is both environmentally friendly and appealing to the masses. All in all, I see agritech as the way of the future in terms of our food system and of just farming in general. In my opinion, this field is totally worth investing in as we will always need food, and this industry guarantees that we have that.
This paper went over 2 aspects of biotech sustainability and there are so many more ways that the biotech industry is looking out for the earth whilst also providing for humanity. Nonetheless, we see here that even in these 2 examples of how biotech is working today and that the industry as a whole has the ability to make a real difference in the fight against climate change, we just need to give it space, time, and money for it to truly take flight. Furthermore, this industry obviously has a vision. That vision is sustainability and that goal is a goal attainable. It is also a goal that will make a difference in the world. A world which we must save before it’s too far gone.

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