Design and Development of Next Generation Light Driven Technologies

This event is held in the theatrette on the ground floor of the Brisbane square library followed by optional drinks at Jimmy's on the Mall. Attendees under 18 and guests are highly welcome. Please bring a gold coin donation to help with the meetup fee.
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The sun is by far our largest energy resource. Every 2 hours it provides us with more energy than we need to power our entire global economy for a year. This massive solar energy resource is already being used extensively to produce heat (e.g. solar hot water heaters) and electricity (e.g. photovoltaic systems), with solar driven fuel production systems emerging (e.g. sustainable aviation fuels). Direct light driven industries that power the production of a broad range of new products offer a fourth
sustainable and often high value opportunity.

Over 3 billion years photosynthetic organisms have evolved to tap into the huge energy resource of the sun to enable the production of oxygen and a diverse array of biomolecules which collectively form biomass and support aerobic life on Earth through the biosynthesis of foods, fibres, biomaterials, pharmaceuticals and bioproducts.

The Centre for Solar Biotechnology, launched in 2017, is focused on accelerating the innovation and translation of light-driven biotechnologies and industries based on such photosynthetic organisms and in particular single cell green algae (microalgae). This presentation highlights the multi-scale (atomic to industrial scale) and multi-disciplinary approach (e.g. electron microscopy to factory simulations) employed by the Centre to fast-track systems optimisation, de-risk scale-up and develop robust business opportunities. This assists in the development of circular economy solutions, that allow humanity to operate within its planetary boundaries, meet the UN Sustainable Development Goals and deliver
economic, social and environmental benefits. Such work contributes to Australia’s advanced manufacturing base and enhances food, fuel, water and climate resilience in a rapidly changing world.

Speaker bio:
Prof Ben Hankamer is the founding director of the Solar Biofuels Consortium (2007) and Centre for Solar Biotechnology (2016) which is focused on developing next generation microalgae systems. These systems are designed to tap into the huge energy resource of the sun (>2300x global energy demand) and capture CO2 to produce a wide-range of products. These include solar fuels (e.g. H2 from water, oil, methane and ethanol), foods (e.g. health foods) and high value products (e.g. vaccines produced in algae). Microalgae systems also support important eco-services such as water purification and CO2 sequestration. The Centre is being launched in 2016/2017 and includes approximately 30 teams with skills ranging from genome sequencing through to demonstration systems optimsation and accompanying techno-economis and life cycle analysis. The Centre teams have worked extensively with industry.