Team:Macquarie Australia/Practices/ImpOpinions
Key Opinion Leaders
In order to gain professional industry perspectives and an objective critical evaluation of our project, Team Macquarie 2015 consulted key opinion leaders from a variety of relatable fields. This offered fruitful feedback and information on how to best design our project and tailor it as a potential business venture.
According to Dr. Stephen Schuck of Bioenergy Australia, most hydrogen production today is utilised in the production of ammonium nitrate and fertiliser. He further applauded the relative novelty of Team Macquarie’s usage of synthetically produced hydrogen as an alternative energy source. During an August 2015 tour of our laboratory and work-space (fig. 3), he discussed with our team various current and future prospects in bioenergy production methods in order to highlight our competitive market, and these methodologies were corroborated by other related professionals. He also highlighted that most biological hydrogen production is achieved via algae rather than E. coli, indicating that Macquarie iGEM is working towards filling a relative industry vacuum. However, it must be noted that the Hydrogen Hero does not seek to replace other fuel sources, but merely supplement them.
Dr. Stephen Schuck Manager, Bioenergy Australia. M. Sc. (Engineering), Grad. Dip. (Management), PHD and MBA (Technology Management) “Most hydrogen production today is utilised in Ammonium Nitrate and fertiliser production, so it’s fantastic to see some progression towards realising its greater potential as an energy source.”
Figure 1: Dr. Schuck alongside Team Macquarie students during a collaboration meeting.
Figure 2: Dr. Schuck presenting to the team about alternative bioenergy sources.
Gavin Hughes of the Biofuels Association of Australia assisted us in critically evaluating financial factors relevant to our project, outlining that pollution and any negative health impacts all contribute to final taxation calculation in fuel production, neither of which negatively impact the Hydrogen Hero. Financial practicality was then further assessed by Andrew Gilbert of Bioplatforms Australia who highlighted how to surpass the various risk points that may discourage product value inflation. According to Gavan Knox of Hydrogen Fuel Systems, our usage of an on site-generator would allow avoidance of numerous harsh Australian fuel storage taxation laws that may prevent achievable financial prospects. INSERT HELENA SENTENCE HERE: ___??_
Gavin Hughes CEO, Biofuels Association of Australia. Founder/ CEO Kingfisher Solutions Pty. Ltd. “Environmental and health impacts are both key contributors to government taxation.”
Andrew Gilbert General Manager, Bioplatforms Australia. Operations Manager, Australian Proteome Analysis facility Key financial sponsor of Macquarie iGEM 2015. “Product value will spike after surpassing just a few key risk points.”
Gavan Knox
Managing Director, Hydrogen Fuel Systems
Managing Director, Knox Scientific Pty. Ltd.
“If you’re producing and then storing it, it’s technically considered fuel and will therefore need to abide by the numerous and strict associated legislations, particularly when in Australia.”
Professor Helena K. Nevalainen Biotechnology Industry Advisor “If you can come up with a hydrogen energy solution that is portable and can reach remote communities, that is a story I would want to listen to”
Dr. Trevor Davies (Allens: Patent Lawyers) and Dr. Andrew Jones (Foundry Intellectual) offered invaluable legal advice, particularly regarding patenting laws in Australia. These revealed that while our product, as a unique biological invention including synthetic DNA is certainly patentable, achieving this would require a functioning, complete E. coli capable of producing hydrogen gas. We acknowledge the fact that achieving this may be outside of reasonable scope of our Macquarie 2015 team’s research project. However we are optimistic of the commercial success of The Hydrogen Hero in future years. Furthermore Andrew Jones and Trevor Davies both noted that wide-scale disclosure about our project and its production methods would make securing a patent within Australia unlikely at this stage. However, it will be necessary to secure patents at a later stage to ensure the commercial viability of the project as an enterprise.
Dr Trevor Davies Partner, Allens Patent & Trademark Attorneys. BSc (Hons), PhD, GDIP, FIPTA. “To get a patent the product needs to be both novel and inventive while also having not been released to the greater public”.
Dr Andrew Jones Principal, Foundry Intellectual Property Patent and Trademark Attorney BSc (Hons), PhD, MIP, Dip, IPP. “The supreme courts are unified in the opinion that artificial genes and their products are patentable material.”
In summary, the viability of our project was demonstrated and assessed by the optimistic comments and reviews made by the Key Opinion Leaders in industry and beyond.