C16 Biosciences - Brewing Alternatives
There is an ingredient involved in almost every aspect of your life, that until recently, was partly unknown for its ecological harm. This ingredient is in the pizza and chocolate you probably recently gorged yourself on (it’s okay…no judgement here), the deodorant and toothpaste you used, and the biofuels used to transport all of the aforementioned products. The ingredient that you’re probably thinking about here is corn syrup—which is not wrong—but the ingredient I’m actually talking about: Palm Oil.
You might recall the video that surfaced of the Orangutan getting territorial and attempting to Donkey Kong smash machinery that’s destroying her home. This was a result of the horrifying practices of the palm oil industry, which is a leading contributor to global deforestation. The cultivation of palm oil directly threatens 193 critically endangered species, including Orangutans. Considering the exponential expansion of the industry—which increased 15x between 1980 and 2014—the continued growth could negatively affect 54% of threatened mammals and 64% of threatened birds globally.[1]
Now, I’m not someone who turns a blind eye to the other side of the situation (though Carole Baskins fed her husband to the tigers and I don’t care what you have to say), but there has to be reasons why the use of Palm Oil continues to grow, and there is. For many countries the production of palm oil is a huge economic factor and allows millions of families to survive. On top of the financial aspect, a large portion of the worlds’ population relies on this oil as part of their diets. Overall, it’s more efficient and less expensive than many of the alternatives we have today.
That’s where C16 Biosciences comes in.
The mad-scientist trio behind C16 consists of Shara Ticku, David Heller, and Harry McNamara, who met during their time at MIT and come from backgrounds in disciplines such as synthetic biology, bioengineering and healthcare. The idea for exploring an alt palm oil rose from Shara and Harry’s first-hand experiences seeing the destruction caused by the industry during their time in Costa Rica and Singapore. This gave birth to their beautiful corporate child, C16 Biofuels, with the objective to create a sustainable, environmentally friendly, and cost-efficient alternative to palm oil.
To make the oil alternative they use yeast fermentation and produce the oil intracellularly. For the non-bio majors out there, they are essentially the craft beer makers of vegetable oil, where they use a fermentation-based process to “brew” palm oil from microbes. This is done by using a proprietary yeast which is fed with carbon-containing waste, like the excess food from grocery stores. By using this process of converting raw materials into consumable commercial product, they don’t cause deforestation, endanger precious animal species, or force inhumane labor practices.
C16 hopes to break into the market faster by starting with smaller levels of production, aiming to work with products that use lower levels of palm oil first. The company is working on optimizing their process and starting their alt-oil infiltration within the personal care space, and they continue to methodically capture more and more of the palm oil market.
Understanding the global need for palm oil, it is—in my opinion—a no-brainer to keep these oil brewing pioneers on your radar. If you want to throw your hat in the ring, the company is actually hiring for talent specializing in metabolic engineering, fermentation, and product development for its team. If you don’t enjoy pissing off Orangutans (along with hundreds of other species) and want to be on the frontlines of a tech disruptor within a $60-90bn market (with a 7.2% CAGR)[2], check them out. The company is young (founded 2017) and there is no guarantee C16 will be able to completely replace the conventional palm oil market; but with a $20 million Seed A investment round led by Bill Gates’ Breakthrough Energy Ventures, they are off to a promising start.
*Disclaimer: Kairos Tech Coverage is not affiliated, associated, authorized, endorsed by, or in any way officially connected with any other company, agency or government agency. All product and company names are trademarks™ or registered® trademarks of their respective holders.
[1] “Palm Oil and Biodiversity.” IUCN, 7 May 2019, www.iucn.org/resources/issues-briefs/palm-oil-and-biodiversity
[2] Research, Zion Market. “Global Report: Palm Oil Market Size & Share Estimated To Touch the Value Of USD 92.84 Billion In 2021.” GlobeNewswire News Room, "GlobeNewswire", 30 July 2019, www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2019/07/30/1893425/0/en/Global-Report-Palm-Oil-Market-Size-Share-Estimated-To-Touch-the-Value-Of-USD-92-84-Billion-In-2021.html.
TerraPower - So You’re Saying There’s a Chance?
The New York Jets, the weed industry, and nuclear energy are a few things with shaky pasts but promising futures. Some certainly more than others – in Darnold I trust –and the future of nuclear energy in particular is looking especially promising.
Nuclear is the Tamika (from School of Rock) of the clean energy revolution. It is an option with huge upsides: given the appropriate attention and investment, it will carry the show. In fact, nuclear already represents around 1/5th of the power generation in the US, currently eclipsing renewables which are around 17% as of 2019.[1] Just as Tamika rocked the stage with her angelic voice after Jack Black invested his time, trust, and effort in her, , nuclear will be doing big things on the energy stage — it just needs more time and innovation to truly tap into its near-zero emission potential.
Some of the risks and/or setbacks of nuclear are straightforward (Hi Chernobyl – great show btw), but other than the waste and safety concerns, there is the question of time effectiveness (planning to operation) and the huge price tag. I won’t delve too much into these, but if you want more info on the reasons behind the anti-nuclear movement, you can check out the Leonardo Dicaprio Foundations write-up. Either way, I may not think nuclear is the complete answer right now, but I do believe it to be not only an essential key to global clean energy generation down the road, but also a major player across other energy intensive markets. Which is why it does need attention now. The good thing, though, is that with problems come innovative solutions—and that’s where TerraPower comes in.
TerraPower’s goal is to develop a sustainable and economically viable nuclear energy system, all while reducing the risks of proliferation and creating new options for converting low-level waste into vast energy sources. The founder is none other than Bill Gates and his clan of other genius non-human entities. Having a founder in Bill Gates, TerraPower has an abundance of advantages, including collaborations with more than 80 corporations, national laboratories, universities, and expert consultants—all of which help shape its success, which it’s seen early on with its nuclear tech innovations.
I’m no scientist but let’s dive into the tech. TL;DR for those who aren’t in the mood to get smacked in the face with a ramble on scientific innovation: Traveling Wave Reactor (TWR) is a cleaner, safer, and more efficient nuclear reactor by running on its own (nuclear) waste. Molten Chloride Fast Reactor (MCFR) is a low-cost reactor that expands the ability of nuclear reactor technology to decarbonize the economy in sectors beyond electricity due to its ability to function safely in high-temperature regimes.
The company’s golden child is their advanced nuclear reactor concept, the Traveling Wave Reactor (TWR). The TRW operates with higher thermal efficiency and consumes uranium resources in a more efficient, cleaner, and safer manner than current nuclear technology. Science lesson: Uranium is a common metal found in most rocks worldwide and is widely used in nuclear fission because its atoms can easily be split apart. Fission is the action of splitting something apart so Uranium make sense. (Nuclear plants utilize a specific type of Uranium (Uranium-235), aka enriched Uranium.) Another valuable energy source in the nuclear fuel cycle is Plutonium. Plutonium is a byproduct of Uranium. The reactor core is the money maker of the TWR. In the center of the core sit a few rods of enriched uranium (U-235), surrounded by rods of depleted uranium (U-238). The U-235 serves as an initiator, kick starting the traveling wave reaction – a slow-moving chain reaction of concentric waves of fission. The traveling wave reaction will then slowly convert the depleted uranium to plutonium and consume this new fuel. This is the differentiator of the TRW – unlike traditional nuclear reactors that rely on enriched uranium to produce power, the TWR can function on waste uranium, a byproduct of the current reactor design. It’s an answer to the nuclear waste issue because it runs on its own waste, making nuclear power safer and cheaper. Along with removing waste, it makes these materials unavailable for use in nuclear weapons, which is a huge win for everyone.
The other big dog on campus is the Molten Chloride Fast Reactor Technology (MCFR). This is TerraPower’s answer to decarbonizing the economy in sectors beyond electricity; specifically, MCFR expands the reach of nuclear reactor technology to areas such as carbon-free heat for industrial process like water treatment. The MCFR is a type of molten salt reactor, which is another type of nuclear reactor that uses liquid fuel rather than solid fuel rods. The company’s selling point with the MCFR is the expansion of nuclear outside electricity generation into high heat industrial processes, which are extremely energy intensive. This type of reactor also has a huge safety benefit over conventional reactors because it can’t melt down—they are literally built not to overheat. Similar to the TRW, MCFR technology is a solution to various concerns, including nuclear waste, plutonium stockpiles, and weapons proliferation.
And with that, the science ramble is over.
With its success, TerraPower has begun permeating into other areas such Medical Isotopes, Process Heat, and Advanced Reactor Modeling Interface, but I won’t delve into those now. It does seem that TerraPower will soon have nuclear reactors powering every aspect of our lives, so it’s helpful to identify this future powerhouse of a company early on.
Touching on my opening statement, if nuclear can recover from its mishaps, so can the Jets.
*Disclaimer: Kairos Tech Coverage is not affiliated, associated, authorized, endorsed by, or in any way officially connected with any other company, agency or government agency. All product and company names are trademarks™ or registered® trademarks of their respective holders.
[1] “U.S. Energy Information Administration - EIA - Independent Statistics and Analysis.” Electricity in the U.S. - U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), 20 Mar. 2020, www.eia.gov/energyexplained/electricity/electricity-in-the-us.php.
AeroFarms - No More Farmers Tan
~ Food ~
Easiest click-bait headline of all time. Every living creature needs it. For some it’s a profession, for many it’s what we build our daily schedules around, and for some it’s even a fetish. Though, the growing process or rather the agriculture industry as a whole, outside of the end-product, is seldom spoken about. We know there are farms all around the world for vegetables, grains, meat, fish, avocados, and the like, but we are less aware of the global issues that traditional agricultural practices are facing or are creating.
Unfortunately, as per experts from the Grantham Centre for Sustainable Futures, nearly 33 per cent of the world’s arable land has been lost to erosion or pollution in the last 40 years.[1] And with the exponential population increase, the need for more food is a necessity. That demand is being met in the Mecca of the US, the melting pot of innovation, my home state of New Jersey.
When you think of Newark, New Jersey you probably think of the clean air, mountain views, and top-notch airport. Now you can add the future of farming to that list. In come the bad boys of modern agriculture, AeroFarms: a developer of aeroponic systems to grow leafy greens at high-yield densities in urban vertical farms, AeroFarms is attempting to take over modern agriculture.
The technology behind Aerofarms is their patented aeroponic growing system. Now for clarity, aeroponics is the process of growing plants without soil; instead, they’re grown in the air or in a mist environment. This isn’t the indoor growing you will see at your weed dealer’s place. When you look at the AeroFarms website you will see “smart” everything. Smart lights, smart pest management, smart nutrition, smart data, smart people and so on. Each part of the process is broken down to an exact science. As in having sensors in their growing trays which collect 130,000 data points, allowing them to optimize conditions for each plant type.
So let’s get to the meat of the topic. What problems is AeroFarms solving by utilizing an aeroponics process, vertical layout, data capturing, reusable substrate, and everything else they do? A blatant advantage is the ability to produce more food with less land usage. The company doesn’t need vast arable land to produce product. Their production facility is inside a warehouse where they maximize the space by building up and not out. Now take the volatility of weather, temperature, and light out of the equation by maintaining complete control over those factors, and the company has year-round stable production with a quicker growing cycle. It’s also more efficient in terms of water usage – AeroFarms claims to be able to use 95% less water than field farming. They still use water but their “closed loop” mist system actually recycles the water with little to no waste.
The benefits don’t stop with land and water efficiency. You’ve probably seen your dad in his white New Balances and jean shorts wreaking absolute mayhem on your yard with Roundup spray. You’ve also probably heard in the news of the hundreds of millions of dollars Monsanto is being ordered to pay in lawsuits due to the cancer-causing chemicals used in its Roundup spray. The company has no need for harmful chemical fertilizers and pesticides, eliminating the poisonous runoff into water sources we see from conventional farming practices. Not using pesticides also means you don’t need to waste water washing the product at home. Voila—even less water consumption.
As the above points out, AeroFarms is wildly efficient in terms of water and land usage. The company also dipped its toes into recycling efficiency. They show-off their pro-sea turtle side by tackling plastic waste. Since they don’t use soil they need some other medium for seeding, growing, and harvesting. They developed a patented reusable cloth which is made out of BPA-free, post-consumer recycled plastic. The company also assures that the cloth can be fully sanitized and reseeded with zero contamination risk.
Let’s cap it off with one last benefit. When you go to the grocery store everything you are looking for is somewhere to be found in that single location, but all of those products aren’t coming from the farm out back. A huge polluting factor in agriculture is the supply chain: getting the product harvested, bagged, and to the store. AeroFarms provides fresh, local produce, side-stepping the carbon-emitting supply chains we currently deal with. Scale this production process globally and fresh produce can be had anywhere regardless of geography, climate, and terrain.
So, game-time walkthrough: what are we looking at? Dramatic decrease in land usage. Boom. Significantly less water usage. Boom. No chemical runoff. Boom. No negative production effects from weather. Boom. Removes plastic from the waste stream. Boom. Cuts traditional CO2 emitting supply chain. Boom.
I’m aware of one major con that is brought up. Energy usage. Relying on artificial lighting and climate control systems is extremely energy intensive. This is a costly downside – currently. With the continued agriculture tech innovations and shift into clean energy, this will be a problem of the past. Multiple companies are surfacing with answers and I will happily shed light on them here.
*Disclaimer: Kairos Tech Coverage is not affiliated, associated, authorized, endorsed by, or in any way officially connected with any other company, agency or government agency. All product and company names are trademarks™ or registered® trademarks of their respective holders.
[1] “Soil Loss: an Unfolding Global Disaster – Grantham Centre Briefing Note • Grantham Centre for Sustainable Futures.” Grantham Centre for Sustainable Futures, 20 Jan. 2020, grantham.sheffield.ac.uk/soil-loss-an-unfolding-global-disaster/.
AMP Robotics - AI Takes Out the Trash
Global waste has become an increasingly popular issue. Grocery stores no longer using plastic bags, coffee shops encouraging reusable cups, and the war on plastic straws are some of the trends being brought to the public. These moves are great but seemingly inconsequential when looking at what we are really dealing with. A study done in December 2018 in the peer-reviewed journal Science Advances states that dating back to the 1950’s, when plastic production really ramped up, “Of the 8.3 billion metric tons that has been produced, 6.3 billion metric tons has become plastic waste. Of that, only nine percent has been recycled.[1]” We have not only a growing waste problem, but a recycling problem. Luckily, we also have people tackling the issue like Matanya Horowitz, who founded AMP Robotics back in 2014.
AMP Robotics describes itself as an industrial robotics and AI company changing the fundamental economics of recycling with breakthrough technology that automates the identification, sorting, and processing of complex waste streams to extract maximum value for customers. Put simply, it’s a very smart machine that makes large scale recycling easier and faster.
AMP Robotics employs its technology across the industries of Municipal Solid Waste (…or garbage), Electronic Waste, and Construction & Demolition. On the company site they list out material types covered – so for more details head there – but they range from plastic cups to copper and processed wood. Ultimately, AMP Robotics covers the majority of waste that is overflowing our landfills and wreaking havoc to certain geographic regions and the broader environment.
The technology behind AMP Robotics is 3-part: AMP Cortex, AMP Neuron, and AMP Insights.
AMP Cortex is the muscles behind the operation. It’s a highspeed robotic system that handles the physical tasks of sorting, picking, and placing the recyclable materials. This bad-boy has a 98% purity rate – targeting down to the SKU and Brand level. The advantage with Cortex doesn’t just lie in its plastic cup or aluminum target success rate, but its 24/7 operational ability. Cortex never needs to clock out to grab a beer with the boys.
AMP Neuron is the brain. It is perpetually learning, becoming increasingly accurate as time goes on – in other words, it will always be better than your brain. Neuron is an AI platform that applies machine learning to constantly better itself. This guides Cortex, or the arms, to perform human-like tasks. Its machine learning ability not only allows it to become better at the job with time but enables it to adapt to changes like package design and lighting. By the time Jimbo steps back into the sorting line after looking up the details of an unfamiliar item, Neuron has already identified, processed, and sorted the next ten new items Jimbo is unfamiliar with.
AMP Insights takes all the data captured by Neuron and turns it into accessible visualization. It’s like Bob Ross, translating a complex data set into a pretty picture. Insights monitors activity, measures performance, and allows for smart decision making backed by real-time data. Customers can set up text/email notifications so they can be notified of specific triggers that are important to the users’ facility. It can be used to quantify value per haul or compare performance across equipment lines. Insights visually represents the increase in efficiency from manual to automated.
So, what’s it look like? Basically, it’s a head with high-tech smart cameras for eyes and multiple arms fitted with clamps/suction cups. Understandably, that description doesn’t do it much justice so think of it as a Sentinel from the Matrix movie series. AI robot with a large head, multiple arms, and many eyes, though it doesn’t fly around trying to destroy humanity; instead, it helps humanity deal with the mess we’ve created before the mess destroys us.
I am a firm believer in attacking a problem at its core, but unfortunately the recycling and waste problems are complex. Companies can always, and must, do better, but they cannot simply switch materials and continue BAU overnight. The same is true for humans – but even when waste makes it into the correct bin, it’s not necessarily being handled properly. AMP Robotics is one of many companies tackling the ongoing waste and recycling issues and looks to be on a successful track.
It may have been awhile, but remember the elementary school teaching: Reduce, Reuse, and then….Recycle.
*Disclaimer: Kairos Tech Coverage is not affiliated, associated, authorized, endorsed by, or in any way officially connected with any other company, agency or government agency. All product and company names are trademarks™ or registered® trademarks of their respective holders.
[1] Parker, Laura. “A Whopping 91% of Plastic Isn't Recycled.” National Geographic, 20 Dec. 2018, www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2017/07/plastic-produced-recycling-waste-ocean-trash-debris-environment/#close.