Stefan+Obradavic

=Stefan's Scintillating Wikispace =

"Humanity has the stars in its future, and that future is too important to be lost under the burden of juvenile folly and ignorant superstition." -Isaac Asimov

Top 5 UN Sustainability Goals:

Goal 2: Zero Hunger
 * "End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture"

Goal 4: Quality Education
 * "Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all."

Why education? Because 103 million youth worldwide still lack basic literacy skills, and more than 60% of those are women. More than half of children failed to meet minimum math proficiency standards at the end of primary school in 1 in 4 countries, and at the lower secondary level in 1 in 3 countries. A lack of education prevents people from attaining any of the other UN sustainability goals. It is only through quality education that new technologies can be developed and used, that more people can benefit economically and culturally as a whole. Education is what helps us achieve these goals quicker and more efficiently and allows a large collective of people to work together rather than separately.

Goal 6: Clean Water and Sanitation
 * "Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all."

Goal 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth
 * "Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all."

Goal 9: Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure
 * "Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and foster innovation"

Manufacturing is the largest source of employment and GDP in the world and yet most of it is either crumbling or outdated. I've been all around the world and more often than not, the connective issue is a lack of infrastructure to easily accomplish other goals. Many places are ravaged by diseases because they lack basic water treatment plants; most of the world does not have a sewage system (even parts of Upper Dublin use a Septic Tank rather than sewage). The lack of roads, cars, industrial jobs all plague the third world making everything either harder or more expensive to accomplish. Plenty of places also do not have telephone lines and cellular connection, hospitals, roads, or basic utilities. We see the third world as dirty and poor and this is due in large part to the lack of industry and infrastructure.

= Week 1: =

Issue:
The United Nations predicts that 1.8 billion people will not have access to drinkable water by 2025 (14% of world population). In class, we watched a video that discussed the lack of water availability across the globe. In the video and our classroom demonstration, it was shown that only a small fraction of the world's water is drinkable and accessible. The water that we do have access to is getting increasingly overused because of a growing population, dried up due to global climate change and the greenhouse gas effect, and polluted due to things like fracking and poor sewage. In fact, there seemed to be a consensus in the class as well as with leading experts that World War Three is most likely due to occur as a lack of water availability.

Technology in Development: Graphene Sieve ([|Paper in Nature Magazine])
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University of Manchester scientists developed a graphene oxide membrane sieve that can filter nanoparticles like common salts out of water. Graphene-based filters developed in the past were too porous to do this and the membrane would become larger when placed in water. The new sieve takes salty water, puts it into a filtration unit, where even the smallest sodium chloride ion can be filtered as water is pumped through the membrane made from layered graphene oxide flakes. Membrane swelling is prevented by a coating of epoxy resin which prevents the smallest common salts from passing through the membrane. Water molecules pass through the membrane, but larger molecules like oil and salts are filtered out all the while being a much more efficient filtration method than commercial polymer membranes because less pressure is needed to force water against the concentration gradient than the conventional "reverse osmosis" method. Computer model estimates point at graphene as a 15-45% increase in energy efficiency when compared to polymer membranes that are currently in use. Its developers say it's ideal for desalination - currently an expensive and energy-intensive process. Currently, however, the machine uses a gas cylinder and is rather stationary. Ideally, a portable water graphene filtration device with a hand pump could be developed and distributed in third-world countries and impoverished areas to extend access to drinking water. As of now, desalination plants that are located around the world along coastal areas use traditional polymer membranes. Israel, for instance, extracts a quarter of all of their drinking water from the Mediterranean Sea and would greatly benefit from a more efficient system. Although graphene membranes are harder to engineer, they prove to be both more commercially viable and more effective at filtering water. Still, desalinating only one acre-foot of water (the amount 10 people consume in a year) can cost anywhere around $1,000 to $2,500. One of the biggest drawbacks of using such a technology to combat Goal 6: //Clean Water and Sanitation// is the excess extraction of salt which could cause ocean, river, and lake salinity to increase. Although this does not necessarily have an adverse effect on the environment, the macrobiological effect of such an occurrence is, as of yet, unknown. Additionally, there are no viable, cheap methods known for large-scale, industrial graphene production.

__**A little bit about** **Graphene**:__ ([|video]) Graphene is the thinnest material known to man (one atom thick). It consists of carbon molecules arranged tightly in a hexagonal lattice sheet. The properties of the substance also extend to high thermal and electrical conductivity and immense structural strength. This material is currently in development for thinner, flexible, shatterproof touchscreens; smaller computer chips; tough composite materials; and efficient solar panels.

Great exploration of the Israeli's success in water desalination, filtration, and reuse: media type="youtube" key="RaiCRnIwwbE" height="521" width="922" Israel has gone from a state of drought to water surplus within a few years despite being located in the dry Middle East. This is due in large part to conservation, recycling, and desalination. Israel is a world leader in water reuse (86% of water is reused) as it is treated in water treatment plants for use in irrigation. The most significant advance has been in desalination with the construction of 5 desalination plants within a 10-year time period ($40 million for each). The sale of this water to citizens via the Israeli government provides for over 50% of Israel's drinking water. The development of membrane technology has decreased the cost of desalination by half of the original cost in Israel. Just one of the 5 desalination plants can produce enough water for a fifth of Israel's total population each day. This process is however very energy intensive, consuming about 3% of Israel's annual electricity output.

Great video that covers how desalination plants work: media type="youtube" key="mZ7bgkFgqJQ" height="245" width="471"



= Week 2: =

=**Issue:**= According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, global per capita fish consumption has risen to above 20 kilograms a year and this rate is only rising as the demand for fish products like sushi and shrimp are increasing across the world and in places located farther and farther inland. 90 percent of all fishing vessels are located in Asia, where the lucrative fishing business thrives on staggering population growth rates and the central component of fish in the diet. The UN states that over a third of all commercial fish stocks are currently biologically unsustainable ([|Source]). At the current rate, experts predict that all commercial fish species could go extinct by 2048 ([|Source]). The increase in aquaculture (fish farms) additionally leads to increased release of chemicals into the environment, increased risk of disease outbreak among fish, and concentrated waste leading to water pollution.

=**Technology in Development: //Ahimi (Sustainable Tuna)//**= media type="youtube" key="4plr_K3spxM" height="334" width="940" In an effort to address the 97% drop in Bluefin Tuna population, a company called Ocean Hugger Foods has successfully developed a method to produce sustainable imitation sushi (Ahimi) entirely out of vegetables like tomatoes that looks like and tastes like tuna. By capturing the natural, umami taste of tomatoes and removing its distinct "tomato taste", the taste of umami tuna can be easily mimicked. The company is also currently developing imitation salmon made from carrots and eel made from eggplant. In addition to the ethical and sustainable advantages to eating Ahimi over tuna, consumers of Ahimi don't have to worry about mercury poisoning due to biological magnification or high sodium and fat content. The companies current goals are to get the product out to chefs and restaurants and expand the distribution of the item in stores other than Whole Foods ([|Company Website]). Other companies, like Nonfood, are trying to address the issue of less usable land to grow crops by harvesting algae for regular consumption. Although this does not try to mimic an already existing food item and would take an acquired taste and some getting used to, it is very possible that algae will be the only viable way to feed a growing population sustainably.

In class this week we discussed how the production of meat from animals like cows and chickens leads to the increased emission of greenhouse gasses like carbon dioxide and methane, the crowding-out of the water supply as 1,800 gallons are required to produce a pound of beef, disease outbreaks, etc. The main takeaway from our class discussion is that meat consumption should be reduced and limited however it is very difficult to completely change your diet especially getting rid of something so delicious as meat (even Mrs. Lil has trouble doing so!). This technology/development addresses this difficulty to switch to vegetarian and vegan diets by mimicking the same tastes we get from eating meat products like fish. In doing so, the demand for traditional tuna could potentially drop and overfishing could be quelled as more people switch from very unsustainable diets to more vegetable-based ones.

media type="youtube" key="a-vS9S0rvFg" height="333" width="498"media type="youtube" key="5YIsb8WRH4M" height="329" width="490" 1. Peel the tomato's skin (use a hot water bath followed by a cold water bath to do this more easily) 2. Scoop out the seeds of the tomato and dispose 3. Place tomatoes in a vacuum bag 4. Soak in a marinade (soy sauce, rice vinegar, syrup, ground ginger, garlic powder) 5. Compress the bag 6. Refrigerate
 * How to make Ahimi:**



= Week 3: =

**Issue**:
According to the EPA, approximately one ounce of carbon dioxide is emitted for each ounce of polyethylene (PET) produced. PET is the type of plastic most commonly used for beverage bottles. Other sources pin the production ratio of carbon emissions to plastic production closer to 5:1. Worldwide, we consume approximately 100 million tons of plastic each year. From the EPA's more conservative estimate to the more liberal one, that's anywhere from 100 million tons of carbon dioxide emitted to 500 million tons. With the more conservative estimate, plastics are on par with the annual emissions of 19 million vehicles, a number of drivers equal to the entire population of New York state. The liberal estimate puts us closer to the emissions equivalent of 92 million vehicles, or the number of drivers equal to the populations of every state west of the Rockies and Texas. Put another way, our passion for plastics resulted in emissions ranging from 10 to 45 percent of the annual emissions from the approximately 200 million licensed drivers in the United States. Using the conservative estimate of 30 percent carbon savings for recycled plastic (though some claim the savings to be at 70 percent), recycling plastics could save between 30 and 170 million tons of carbon each year, or the approximate equivalent of removing between six and 30 million vehicles from U.S. roads.

However, plastic use is only on the rise. In 1950, the world’s population of 2.5 billion produced 1.5 million tons of plastic; in 2016, a global population of more than 7 billion people produced over 320 million tons of plastic. This is set to double by 2034. As of now, a plastic bottle can last up to 450 years in the marine environment, slowly fragmenting into smaller and smaller pieces which eventually end up microscopic but never truly go away. Microplastics have even been found embedded deep in the Arctic ice. Every day approximately 8 million pieces of plastic pollution find their way into our oceans, consistently making up 60 to 90% of all marine debris studied. In fact, 100,000 marine mammals and turtles and 1 million sea birds are killed by marine plastic pollution annually ([|Source]).

Technology in Development (PETase):
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PETase is an enzyme that was first found by a Japanese research team at a Polyethylene terephthalate bottle recycling site. It was isolated from the //Ideonella// //Sakaiensis// strain 201-F6 bacteria. This newly-evolved enzyme can catalyze the hydrolysis of PET plastic to its monomeric unit: mono-2-hydroxyethyl terephthalate (MHET). The idealized chemical reaction is (where n is the number of monomers in the polymer chain), (PET)n + H2O → n(MHET). Recently, in April of 2018, scientists from the University of Portsmouth with the collaboration of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory of the United States Department of Energy developed a mutant of PETase that degrades PET faster than the one found in its natural state. In this study, it was also shown that PETases can degrade polyethylene 2,5-furandicarboxylate (PEF). This accidental development of a quicker plastic-degrading enzyme will be crucial in perfecting the plastic recycling process. Currently, plastics cannot be fully recycled, particles get returned back into the ocean, and eventually become part of items, like clothing, that often get disposed in landfills where they do not degrade. By using this new enzyme, scientists have the ability to fully degrade a plastic item into its building blocks to reuse for new products. ([|Source/Paper]).

This past week we discussed the efficient use of natural renewable and unrenewable resources. Plastics, we discussed, are a by-product of petroleum fractional distillation. This process is not only unsustainable because of the staggering amount of carbon emissions resulting from the energy needed to heat, refine, and distill petroleum, but also because the product itself is formed using an unrenewable resource. This new technology has the potential to decrease the need for the fractional distillation of resins that create plastics by enabling plastics like PET to become a completely reusable resource that can be broken down into monomer components such as MHET. The ideal use of such an enzyme would be in recycling plants in order to maximize plastic reuse and in the ocean to degrade pollutants.

Fractional Distillation:

PET (polymer):

PETase (enzyme):

MHET (monomer):