Microbial Photobioenergy - Making C02 a Resource, Not a Liability

Monday, September 9, 2013
3:30 - 4:30pm
102 DeBartolo

Bruce E. Rittmann
Director, Swette Center for Environmental Biotechnology
Biodesign Institute, Arizona State University

In the context of global climate change, CO2 is viewed as a serious liability, something to be “sequestered” from the atmosphere.  However, a stream of concentrated CO2 is a highly valuable resource when photosynthetic microorganisms utilize it to produce renewable substitutes for fossil fuels.  This presentation begins by laying out the context for why society needs to exploit photosynthetic microorganisms to replace fossil fuels.  It then focuses on two paths for utilizing photosynthetic bacteria to generate massive amounts of renewable fuel feedstock that can replace the energy services we now obtain from fossil fuels.  Our team is working on both paths, and I give examples from our work with the sp. PCC 6803.  The first pathway is to produce photosynthetic biomass from which we can extract lipids to replace petroleum for transportation fuels and also produce other valuable energy outputs.  Key here is recycling the water and nutrients so that the system does not pollute the environment or compete with agriculture.  The second pathway is to modify Synechocystis so that it produces and excretes the fuel feedstock, which we harvest from the medium.  Called the photosynthetic factory, the second path minimizes technical and economic roadblocks associated with harvesting products from biomass.

Dr. Bruce E. Rittmann is Regents’ Professor of Environmental Engineering and Director of the Swette Center for Environmental Biotechnology in the Biodesign Institute at Arizona State University.  His research focuses on the scientific and engineering fundamentals needed to “manage microbial communities to provide services to society.”  Dr. Rittmann is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Sciences and the International Water Association, and a Distinguished Member of ASCE.  Dr. Rittmann was awarded the first Clarke Prize for Outstanding Achievements in Water Science and Technology from the National Water Research Institute and the Walter Huber Research Prize and the Simon Freese Award from ASCE.  Dr. Rittmann is on the List of Most Highly Cited Researchers of the Institute for Scientific Information and has published over 520 journal articles, books, and book chapters.  Together with Dr. Perry McCarty, Dr. Rittmann authored the textbook Environmental Biotechnology: Principles and Applications (McGraw-Hill Book Co.).