Team:Macquarie Australia/Practices/Implementation
NB: this is a work in progress - pics to be added & content to be divided into appropriate sub-menues.
Implementation Strategies:
- Overview
- Hydrogen Hero - Our competitive advantage
- Strategic Plan
- Key Opinion Leader (KOL) Engagement
- Prototype design
- Risk
- Vision/ Legacy
Technical
The environmental impact, security of supplies and an ever decreasing reserve of global fossil fuels offers undeniable justification to promoting research into renewable biofuel sources. In the United States alone in 2008, 37.1 quadrillion BTU of petroleum was utilised, of which 71% was used as fuel in the transportation industry (Connor, Atsumi. 2010). Theoretically inexhaustible while also non-polluting, hydrogen gas forms an obvious alternative fuel candidate, with feasible production being the major barrier to its wide-scale applications. While current hydrogen production (predominantly sourced from natural gas) has most traditionally been utilised in oil refining and ammonia production, this project seeks to expand upon these by widely applying it throughout the energy sector; including electricity production, fuel cell heating and even ignition within combustion engines. Multiple hydrogen production methods are commercially available today; the major examples being thermochemical methods in which hydrogen is derived from hydrocarbons, and electrolysis of water during which water is electrically split into its constituent elements; hydrogen and oxygen. In addition to these, alternate techniques have been the topic of investigation; including deriving hydrogen thermochemically from hydrocarbon feedstocks, advanced electrochemical routes to hydrogen production (Ogden 1999), and as in the case of this project, biological production.
Oxygenic photosynthesis is the source of the energy used in producing most food and fuel sources on Earth, and photosystem II (PSII) is an essential and rate-limiting component of this process. By synthetically engineering this component inside E. coli, production of hydrogen gas for use as a renewable biofuel can be achieved. Utilisation of Hydrogen gas as a biofuel offers multiple advantages over other conventional fuel sources; particularly in that it is carbon neutral, non-toxic and automatically separates itself from a microbial culture (Savage, Way, Silver 2008).
Recently, the potential of algae has been revealed as an competitive, alternate biological ‘factory’ for the production of biofuels due to their rapid growth, easy genetic manipulation and safe and cost effective nature as hosts for expressing recombinant proteins. While this is certainly promising, optimization and processing technologies, and preventing abiotic stress exposure is still commercially difficult (Gimpel, Nour-Eldin et al. 2015). E. coli was selected for its competitive advantage over algae as a biological factory as it is ideal in a closed culture as in our generator system while also being easy to genetically manipulate and accompanied by a publicly accessible genome sequence.
Financial
With recent rises in the cost of petroleum alongside uncertainty regarding its limited quantity of reserves, biofuel research is gaining increasing relevance internationally. Unfortunately, the production costs associated with biofuels almost invariably exceeds those of fossil fuels, and as such, assistive factors such as tax exemptions or blending quotas are vital when considering financial viability. In contrast to this, fuel taxation forms a major part of government revenue, as it is significantly easier to implement and maintain compared to the likes of income tax. In fact, in many developing countries fuel taxation makes up ¼ of its total tax revenue (Peters, Thielmann. 2008). Other potential limiting factors such as land requirements for the fuels production, average yield (%), system boundaries (by-products) and transportation systems should also be carefully considered.
The cost of compression of hydrogen gas compared to natural gas is high, as approximately 3 times the compression power per unit of energy transmitted is needed to compress hydrogen, and the cost of compressors is around 20- 30% higher (Ogden 1999). Furthermore, the capital cost of hydrogen transmission pipelines is ~40% higher than natural gas (Ogden. 1999). This offers financial justification for the use of on-site generators and careful compression management, which further allows circumnavigation of many costly Australian fuel taxation laws.
However, there are a major factor that can promote preferential government treatment of biofuels is the abatement of green-house gases (GHG). This of course, requires that the production of the biofuel be economically viable for the internalisation of GHG emission costs. Böhringer C., Löschel A. (2002) calculated that the European Emissions Trading Scheme would abate $41 per tonne, and 1000L of European biodiesel has been predicted to save 1.3 tonne of GHG (Ryan et al. 2006). This indicates that any significant financial return would only be attainable from this aspect of production on a large scale and cannot supplement stable financial foundations.
pictures here!
Legal
DISCLAIMER: This document is not to be construed as general legal advice, rather it is a discourse on intellectual property within the context of the iGEM creative commons licence and a hypothetical commercial enterprize.
The iGEM Creative commons licence:
As stipulated in the registry licence terms (link*) all submitted biobricks fall under the “Sharealike” creative commons licence. Consistant with the iGEM ethos this allows complete freedom to share, modify and redistribute content so long as the original authors are acknowledged (cc*).
Pics Here!
Intellectual property and Commercial Synthetic Biology
Due to the significant risk and capital pertaining to investment in biotechnology industry, patents provide the necessary incentive that drives the multibillion dollar R&D sector. The landmark Association for Molecular Pathology v. Myriad Genetics has posed a significant challenge for the future of this sector, the US supreme court rulling that isolated genes are natural products and therefore not patentable*USCHAMBER. In a somewhat contradictory ruling D'Arcy v. Myriad Genetics Inc & Anor an Australian supreme court (NSW) upheld the patent of the BRCA1 gene, this case is currently pending appeal in the High Court of Australia (The highest court of appeal in the country).
As the long term viability of patenting genetic material remains uncertain, the iGEM creative commons licence forces a future generation of synthetic biologists to come up with more creative ways to develop novel intellectual property.
What can be patented then? To approach this problem the Macquarie iGEM team has consulted with two independent patent lawyers who generously gave their time and insight into this topic.
First and foremost clear articulation of concept is extremely important in designing effective patent law. For this to be clear two fundamental questions must be answered:
Is this novel? (Has it been done before, is this a genuinely new idea)
Is this inventive? (It actually needs to solve a problem and be useful)
Despite the uncertainty overhanging the pending Australian high court case, supreme courts are unified in the opinion that artificial genes and their products are patentable material.
USCHAMBER - Association for Molecular Pathology vs Myriad Genetics
References
- Böhringer C., Löschel A. (2002) Assessing the costs of compliance: The Kyoto Protocol. European Environment, 12 (1), 1 - 16.
- Connor M. R., Atsumi S. (2010) Synthetic Biology Guides Biofuel Production. Journal of Biomedicine and Biotechnology, 10, 1 - 9.
- Goel R. K., Nelson M. A. (1999) The Political Economy of Motor-Fuel Taxation. The Energy Journal 20(1), 45.
- Gimpel J. A., Nour-Eldin H. H., Scranton M. A., Li D., Mayfield S. P. (2015) Refactoring the Six-Gene Photosystem II Core in the Chloroplast of the Green Algae Chlamydomonas reinhardtii. American Chemical Society: Synthetic Biology, 10(1), 1021.
- Ogden J M. (1999) Prospects for building a hydrogen energy infrastructure. Annual review of energy and the environment, 24, 232 - 240.
- Peters J., Thielmann S. (2008) Promoting Biofuels: Implications for developing countries. Energy Policy, 36(4), pp. 1538- 1539.
- Ryan L., Convery F., Ferreria S. (2006) Stimulating the use of biofuels in the European Union: implications for climate change policy. Energy Policy, 34, 3184 - 3194.
- Savage D. F., Way J., Silver P. A. (2008) Defossiling fuel: How Synthetic Biology Can Transform Biofuel Production. American Chemical Society: Chemical Biology, 3(1), 13.
Key Opinion Leaders - (NB: Still need to add Helena)
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. These included:
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.
Pic here Dr.S.S
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.”
Pic here Dr.S.S
Figure 3: Dr. Schuck alongside Team Macquarie students during a collaboration meeting.
Pic here Dr.S.S
Figure 4: 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.
Pic here G.H.
Gavin Hughes,CEO, Biofuels Association of Australia. Founder/ CEO Kingfisher Solutions Pty. Ltd.
“Pollution and health impacts are both key contributors to government taxation.”
Pic here A.G.
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.”
Pic here G.K.
Gavan Knox, Managing Director, Hydrogen Fuel Systems & 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.”
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 later stage to ensure the commercial viability of this enterprise.
Pic here DR.T.D.
Dr Trevor Davies, Partner, Allens Patent & Trademark Attorneys. BSc (Hons), PhD, GDIP, FIPTA.
“To get a patent the product needs to be novel while also having not been released to the greater public”.
Pic here DR.A.J.
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.