Overview
To make our project to meet the demand of the real world, we collect information through public surveys, and expert interviews in various fields. Through these activities, we not only gained a clearer understanding of the public's perception of issues related to shrimp shells and biofuel, but also received some suggestions for project improvements and implementation inspiration, such as raw materials pretreatment and collection (including type and method), Clostridium butyricum fermentation, by-products reduction, biosafety issues consideration, and more rational design of related hardware. These suggestions made us achieve a more reasonable and economic project.
Highlights of Integrated HP
Clearer ideas about kitchen waste pretreatment and collection
-- Prof. Tian help us figure out suitable method of pretreatment of shrimp and crab shells waste for the later production of biofuel, such as oil-water separation, deodorization, fermentation of phosphorous and nitrogen.
-- According to Prof. Lv, we added the source of our raw materials to achieve economic strategy for biofuel production, including crab/lobster shells, common straw containing rich lignin and animal waste which have great potential as bioenergy.
Inspiration for implementation
-- From the talk with Prof. Lv, we figured out that cooperating with the related departments or governments for collecting wastes may be an efficient way.
-- Prof. Tian also suggested us to recycle the waste by using it as fertilizer to reach the economic cycle. We adopted his suggestions and improved our implementation.
-- Prof. Wang inspired us to mitigate by-product production by adjusting the molar ratio of butyric acid and butanol to 1:1. According to her advice, we conducted our mathematics model using the genome-scale mode (GSM) of C. tyrobutyricum to investigate the key factors of balancing butanol and butyric acid production which gave us a guidance for future improvement.
-- In terms of extracting efficiency of biofuel, Mr. Feng also suggested that we could use the lipase surface display, which can avoid subsequent product extraction steps, to reduce costs and improve the application value. That is inspired us the possible direction of our project subsequently.
Hardware
We designed a crushing drying machine, but in the installation of the granular membrane we are not sure, Whether the structure of the device is suitable? Is the transmission reasonable? Mr. Cheng for the granular membrane given a separate motor drive recommendation, and with belt drive, and the reduction motor will need to be placed sideways with a belt or synchronous belt to drive through Because a motor cannot provide good power to the granular membrane. So we adjusted the design, and the final result was to use two motors, one to drive the granular membrane and the other to drive the blade. This design effectively solved the power problem.
Mr.Cheng then suggested a slightly larger design to facilitate assembly and do some internal sealing work, so that the hardware can be assembled more easily.
Biosafety
Biosafety is a problem that every biological project must be considered. From the interview with Professor Xuexin Feng, we knew that although the biosafety risk of Clostridium butyricum is relatively low, strict disinfection and sterilization are still required in the fermentation process, and a closed working system is needed. In these aspects, we have achieved the applied design strictly according to the above requirements.
Serious and purposeful scientific communication
To define the objectives of scientific communication, we compiled the results of expert surveys and interviews. We made the decision to educate the public about the impacts of Clostridium tyrobutyricum. We also intend to briefly describe our project and dispel any lingering skepticism.
Additionally, we would like to increase public knowledge of and interest in synthetic biology by teaching them about its immense potential.
1. Questionnaire Results
A total of 258 questionnaires were collected to understand the public's awareness of the disposal of shrimp and crab shells for recycling, as well as the knowledge and acceptance of using biotechnology to produce biofuels, and the detailed results are as follows.
1.1. The questions of kitchen waste on the harm and treatment ,attention，degree of effective treatment show that ,in general, the disposal of kitchen waste has not been taken seriously.
1.2. However, when asking about the possible solutions and the recycling value of shrimp and crab shells, 73.6% of people agreed with recycling and reusing and only about 18% thought that the value was little, which leads us to our program.
When we ask if people know about biofuels and bioengineering technology, the public also knows less.
From this questionnaire survey, we learned that the public does not know much about our project, and most people do not know about kitchen waste, so more popular science activities should be carried out in the later stage. Therefore, we did more activities about publicity, including repeated publicity on the WeChat public website again and holding online and offline public publicity activities.
1.3. In addition, we also asked some more subjective questions, such as what the respondents think will be the problem of over-reliance on traditional fossil fuels, what are the problems with biofuels, and their views on our project.
Indeed, our research direction and topic are very technical and novel. For the sake of the broad masses of the people and the earth's environment, we will study and innovate, and work seriously and truly!
2. Expert Interviews
Our team has also conducted relevant expert interviews before, and we learned a lot of useful information about the subject through our conversations with the experts.
Prof. Tian
Research area: microorganism & forestry
We mainly aim to figure out suitable method of pretreatment of shrimp and crab shells waste for the later production of biofuel. The interview tends to clarify the existing biofuels and the improvement we can make.
expert we interviewed is Tian Ye, the professor of Nanjing Forestry University;
In the communication with Professor Tian, we learned that the advantages of biofuels are similar in nature to chemical dyes, and their biggest advantage is sustainability; at the same time, we also learned about the basic biofuel production process and how to use kitchen waste to produce biofuels in order to Environmental protection.
Professor Tian has provided us with a series of reasonable suggestions:
1.Pretreat kitchen waste by oil-water separation, deodorization, fermentation of phosphorous and nitrogen
2.Recycle the waste by using it as fertilizer to reach the economic cycle
Prof. Lv
Research area: garbage classification, environmental protection
We aimed to know about the proper source and type of raw material in order to reach the application of our project in real world
The expert we interviewed this time was Lvu Weiguo, Leader of Research Institute of Environmental Engineering and Environmental Science of JSTI
During the conversation with Professor Yu, we raised environmental protection issues, including but not limited to how to deal with kitchen waste and where to get the raw materials needed for our project.
From the interview, we got valuable information:
1.Our source can not only be crab or lobster shells, but also common straw and animal waste containing rich lignin
2.Instead our collecting waste ourselves, we can also contact relating departments or governments about our project to promote environmental protection together
Prof. Xin
Research area: Lignocellulosic Bioconversion Utilization, Bioenergy and Synthetic Biology
At the later stage of the experiment, we were not sure if there were any biosafety issues with our project and product, and suggestions for marketing and promotion. Prof. Fengxue Xin from Nanjing Tech University told us that:
1.Clostridium tyrobutyricum is a probiotic and not a pathogenic bacterium.
2.Also, we use a closed fermentation system, which will be sterilized afterwards, and will not escape into nature or genetic leakage, so there is no ethical problem. Moreover, he reminded us to pay strict attention to the sterilization process during the experimental research. We did do so.
3.At present, commercialization is only chemically synthesized, which is a simple butyric acid + butanol, high pressure + concentrated sulfuric acid reaction. But it is not very useful in the food field. There is no commercial biosynthesis because there is no advantage on industrial synthesis in terms of price.
In addition, in terms of improving our yield from a lipase plasmid host perspective, he suggested that we could use surface display, which would eliminate the extraction step and help reduce costs and expand the application market.
Prof. Wang
Research area: Fermentation Engineering and Biopharmaceuticals
Professor Jvfang Wang, Doctoral supervisor, School of Biological Sciences and Engineering, South China University of Technology, told us that informationon how to mitigate by-product production:
On the one hand, the way to knock out by-products;
At the same time, try to ensure that butyric acid and butanol have a 1:1 molar ratio, otherwise there will be more heterogeneous metabolites, but this is also more difficult to achieve. According to her advice, we conducted our mathematics model using the genome-scale mode (GSM) of C. tyrobutyricum to investigate the key factors of balancing butanol and butyric acid production which gave us a guidance for future improvement.
Mr. Cheng
Research area: mechanical design, mechanical structure analysis and 3D modeling design
MCL Hardware Engineer & Maker Tutor
Certified Mentor of the International Mars Society
We designed a crushing drying machine, but in the installation of the granular membrane we are not sure, Whether the structure of the device is suitable? Is the transmission reasonable? So we have a talk with Raymond. Cheng, the suggestion he given to us is as below.
1. The granular membrane is driven separately by belt drive to avoid the problem of insufficient power of a single motor.
2. It is unlikely that the rotary granular membrane will also be connected to the same shaft for direct drive, and the reduction motor will need to be placed sideways with a belt or synchronous belt to drive through
3. A slightly larger design facilitates assembly and does some internal sealing work
