Biotechnology will make increasingly important contributions to renewable energy in the future, facilitated by innovations in materials science. This presentation will seek to describe the problems being addressed by the development of microalgae to produce renewable energy and how materials science can contribute. The utilization of sunlight by microalgae has much in common with the utilization of sunlight to produce electricity. Improved materials are needed to sustainably produce photovoltaic cells and energy storage technologies. But large-scale growth of microalgae will present unique challenges and opportunities. Microalgae utilize only select wavelengths of solar energy; internally illuminated surfaces are needed to grow microalgae as biofilms and to facilitate the collection of biomass. Improved LEDs that efficiently emit light in the photosynthetically active range are needed. Microalgae biomass can not only be used to produce biodiesel, it can also be processed to produce biodegradable plastics. Harmful algae blooms result from the release of nutrients into the environment due to insufficiently treated wastewater and agricultural runoff. Future wastewater treatment processes employing microalgae can prevent environmental problems by enabling the recycling of nutrients needed by agriculture. Light-activated enzymes will be increasingly used in biotechnology and optical fibers, with attached photoenzymes, are needed to enable catalysis in turbid solutions. The world is facing environmental problems of eutrophication (nutrient pollution resulting in harmful algae blooms) and plastics pollution, food insecurity exacerbated by fertilizer availability/cost, and the need for environmentally sustainable energy sources and environmentally sustainable industrial processes. The industrial scale growth of microalgae addresses each of these concerns, and improved materials will be crucial to these efforts.
Kilbane is Professor of Biology (Emeritus) at the Illinois Institute of Technology, and a Petroleum Microbiology consultant at Intertek since 2010. He received a Ph.D. in Molecular Biology & Microbiology from Tufts University and has devoted his career to the application of biotechnology to various topics in the energy industry. Research topics have included converting waste materials into biofuels (methane, ethanol, and biodiesel), the remediation of hydrocarbon-contaminated soil and water, the development of novel biocatalysts, the detection and control of microbiologically influenced corrosion, and the biodesulfurization of petroleum.
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