Integrated human practices&Entrepreneurship

    Our integrated human practice aims to truly apply our ideas to reality. Centered around Reflection, Responsibility, and Responsiveness, our integrated human practice gradually refines and matures an idea, shaping our business plans and truly connecting our projects with reality.
    The climate crisis is a major global challenge facing humanity today. Due to the burning of fossil fuels, the Earth's average temperature is accelerating, causing disastrous effects on the global climate. Originating from the idea of producing biofuels and fixing carbon dioxide, we have begun our action.

Interview and investigation

In any case, it is very important to respect everyone's choice and the right to privacy. In order to ensure the legitimacy and morality of the information and protect the interests of the interviewees, we provided the informed consent form (Informed consent form) and obtained the consent of the interviewers, so as to know what we need to record and the use of the interview information. All the page content that you can see now has been agreed upon.

1.To determine the feasibility of our ideas, the team interviewed Mr. Yang Shihui, the head of the biological energy laboratory, for his opinion.

Mr.Yang Shihui gave us some insights on the synthesis of biofuels from non-grain waste biomass such as lignocellulose, and told us that isobutanol is a new generation of biofuel with great potential.

2. To understand the use of biofuels and traditional fuels, we went to a local petrochemical plant for interviews.

Our journey was not easy. As the oil and petrochemical industry is a key industry that affects the national economy and people's livelihoods, its safety requirements are high. Without permission, we were prohibited from entering the area to conduct interviews.

3.We went to interview an expert in the field of biochemistry.

"What are the application scenarios of isobutanol in the chemical field? Can you introduce them to us?”
    "Isobutanol is an important organic chemical raw material that can be used to make petroleum additives, antioxidants, plasticizer, artificial musk, fruit essential oil and synthetic drugs. In addition, isobutanol is a new generation of biofuel with great development potential."

"Can you tell us in detail about the specific application of isobutanol as a biofuel?”
    "Isobutanol as a branch chain four-carbon alcohol, compared with the traditional biofuel ethanol and n-butanol, has high energy density, high octane value, easy mixing, steam pressure, low hygroscopic, corrosive advantages, can be directly used in the existing engine and other fuel use equipment, can also directly use the existing gasoline pipeline and distribution channels, is considered to replace gasoline development potential of a new generation of biofuel. In addition, isobutanol can also be used as a feedstock to produce renewable aviation fuel (SAF). SAF can be mixed with fossil aviation fuels by up to 50%, effectively reducing carbon emissions from the aviation industry.”

"What is the current mainstream synthesis of isobutanol?”
    "In industry, isobutanol is usually produced by the byproducts of the petroleum refining process. Petroleum goes through distillation and cracking processes to produce a series of petroleum by-products, including isobutanol. It can be synthesized by the base synthesis method in the laboratory.”

"What do you think are the advantages and future directions of this production method?”
    "At present, the chemical production of isobutanol is very mature, has been industrial scale. But it relies mainly on oil refining, which can have environmental impacts. The development of other alternative energy sources and chemical raw materials is an important direction to reduce the dependence on oil and reduce the environmental impact."

(Figure 1 Interview with experts)

To learn further about isobutanol, we obtained permission from this expert to attempt isobutanol synthesis in a chemical manner in his laboratory. Eventually, we had to terminate the experiment because the experiment involved a dangerous gas. However, we know that even if the experiment goes on smoothly, there will be byproducts in the final product, resulting in the actual yield and purity will be very low.

(Figure 2 Synthesis of isobutanol in a chemical laboratory)

We have integrated this interview and our attempts in the laboratory:

Isobutanol is used in many applications as an important chemical raw material. Current synthesis methods, although very sophisticated, are overly dependent on petroleum. As oil reserves dwindle, it becomes more difficult and expensive to extract and refine, while the extraction and processing of oil has a negative impact on the environment. Finding an alternative production method is therefore an important goal within the industry.

4.In order to understand the production of bioenergy, we went to a local synthetic biology company, Rui Jiakang, for an interview and research.

"What is the current trend and situation of biofuels?"
"Biofuels are an important development direction of renewable energy, helping to solve the problems of energy security and environmental and ecological protection. Under the joint action of policy promotion and sustained growth of market demand, the biofuel industry has developed rapidly. At present, great progress has been made in expanding the selection of raw materials and production technology.

"What biofuels does your company mainly produce?"
"Now the production of bioethanol is mainly, but also actively layout the production of other biofuels, such as isobutanol, 1,3-propylene glycol, 1,4-butanediol and so on."

"What do you see as the current advantages of biofuel production?"
"Biofuels are made of renewable resources with a wide range of selective raw materials, such as lignocellulosic biomass, which is currently the most abundant biomass resource in the world. Using renewable resources as a feedstock can greatly reduce greenhouse gas emissions.”

"What are some of the challenges that the company is facing in the biofuel industry and can you brief us on them?"
"Currently the production cost is high and capacity is low as there are still some technical challenges that have not been overcome. In the future the company will improve biofuel production efficiency and performance to expand capacity and enter new markets to overcome these challenges."

"Can you briefly introduce the current situation of isobutanol biological production, and the company's production layout of this product?"
"Isobutanol can already be biosynthesized in a variety of strains, and Gevo is the first company in the world to produce bioisobutanol industry. At present, there is no industrial isobutanol production technology. At present, the company has opened up the production and synthesis path of isobutanol production, and tested the isobutanol production with corn cob waste residue hydrolysate as raw material, but the production yield needs to be further improved. The company now produces a variety of biofuels to respond to market changes, form an overall technology package, and cooperate with the group company, technology authorization or joint development to establish a production plant"

(Figure 3 Company interview photo)

Then the head of the company took us to visit their production workshop and detailed the production methods and key steps of biofuel manufacturing. And discuss with us the raw materials used for biofuel production, emphasizing the company's sustainable development concept and overall strategic layout.(The company is reluctant to publish this section on public networks for competitive reasons)

(Figure 4 Production workshop)

We integrated this interview:

Biosynthetic fuels are cleaner and greener than conventional chemical synthesis. The production of biofuels with renewable biomass, especially with non-grain raw materials, is the future development trend. In the future, breaking through the technical barriers can further expand the selection of raw materials and the diversity of products, reduce costs, and implement large-scale production.

5.In conjunction with our interviews at the company, we wanted to understand the feasibility of using non-food feedstocks for biofuel production, as well as the economic and environmental benefits it brings. We therefore interviewed Zhang Jinxin, Director of the Industry Carbon Emission Reduction and Carbon Trading Research Centre.

"We need to understand the market size and emission reduction potential of wood fibre feedstocks such as straw, can you suggest anything for us?"
"I suggest you use the Jianghan Plain in central China, the nearest region, as a sample. As the main grain producing region in the country, the Jianghan Plain produces a large amount of crop straw every year, which makes it a suitable pilot area for biomass energy utilisation. You can investigate the potential for reducing emissions from straw bio-utilisation in the Jianghan Plain."

"Can you introduce your views and suggestions on the future development and application of isobutanol bioaviation fuel, as well as the problems and directions you think need to be solved and improved."
"I'm very optimistic about the direction of your research, it's a very meaningful thing if you can solve the problem of carbon emissions from the source, but if your project wants to be applied on a large scale, you still need to solve the problem of the bulk market, have a stable source of raw materials and build a reliable supply chain.

"Can you introduce us to China's current carbon emissions policy and the implementation of carbon emissions in Hubei Province?"
"China has implemented a carbon market mechanism to promote carbon emission reduction. In addition, a carbon emissions trading market has been established and carbon emissions quota targets have been set. Hubei Carbon Emissions Trading Centre in Hubei Province, as one of the seven carbon trading pilots in China, is the only carbon emissions trading pilot in Central China, with a number of trading data ranking first in the country."

(Figure 5 Zhang Jinxin, Director of Industrial Carbon Emission Reduction and Carbon Trading Research Center)

We integrated this interview

According to China's carbon reduction policy, bioaviation fuels based on isobutanol have great prospects in the future energy market. However, in order to achieve this goal, we need to understand the size of the raw material and build a stable raw material supply system in order to have the opportunity to develop a complete production chain. At the same time, in order to gain a deeper understanding of the market size and emission reduction potential of wood fibre feedstocks such as straw, we need to travel to the Jianghan Plain in central China to conduct field research.

field research

The opinions of the interviewed experts allowed us to gain a lot of useful information to further improve our project. However, Director Zhang Jinxin also mentioned that the only way to get the most realistic first-hand data is to go to the field research. So we travelled to the Jianghan Plain in central China to conduct field research to understand the real situation and real needs of local straw utilisation.
We first travelled to Hannan District, Wuhan City, Hubei Province, to carry out our first site-selected straw resource field research, and went into the straw processing plant, where we conducted in-depth interviews with the local village branch secretary and enterprise leaders. Mr Li, the secretary of the village branch of Hannan District, introduced that at present, the straw in the Jianghan Plain is mainly utilised to make "corn stover fuel". By using solid waste such as corn stalks and cobs as raw materials, they are crushed, pressurised, densified and shaped into usable solid pellet fuel. However, he also mentioned the current problem of low energy density of corn stover fuel, compared to traditional fossil fuels. This means that more stover fuel is needed to produce the same amount of energy, which increases the cost of storage, transport and disposal. Also the process of producing corn stover fuel produces by-products such as ash and exhaust gases. These by-products can bring about environmental pollution and disposal costs. He then led the team members to visit two larger local straw factories and introduced us to what specific processes are involved in the processing of corn stover fuel.

(Figure 6 Secretary Li introduces straw-related information to team members in front of the straw storage warehouse.)

Our team followed Secretary Li to Wuhan Shepherd Biotechnology Co. The company is an enterprise mainly engaged in science and technology promotion and application service industry, equipped with professional equipment for straw collection, transfer and storage. Adhering to the principles of "high efficiency and low consumption, energy saving and emission reduction" and "serving agriculture and benefiting mankind", the company is specialised in the new technology of straw fermentation feed. The company adheres to the principles of "high efficiency, low consumption, energy saving and emission reduction" and "serving agriculture and benefiting mankind", specialises in the new technology of straw fermentation feed, and is committed to solving the problem of collecting and utilising straw in the neighbouring areas, and actively promotes the development of new technology of our country's aquaculture industry.Secretary Li and the head of the enterprise, Manager Li Changhong, led us to visit the transportation and management device of straw, and took us to familiarise us with the overall structure of the balers one by one, and then to understand the practical use and application advantages of these large-scale machines. Manager Li said that these balers can reach a capacity of 1500kg-2000kg per hour, with a high degree of automation and less labour, which brings great convenience to the development of local industries.

(Figure 7 Secretary Li introduces the corn stalk baler and conveyor belt to the team members)

We also introduced our team's project and ideas in detail to Manager Li, and they gave us many suggestions on combining with the local situation, and also hoped that we could help promote the popularity and sustainable and healthy development of the straw utilisation industry.
We integrated this field research: the Jianghan Plain is an important grain producing area in China, and the amount of crop stalks has increased, and the rational use of straw resources has become an urgent problem at present. The current solution is to make corn stover fuel, but there are problems in the production, storage and transport process. If the straw of Jianghan Plain is used as raw material to produce our isobutanol aviation fuel, it will accelerate the comprehensive utilisation of crop straw, which is of great significance to energy saving and emission reduction. It is worth mentioning that the Jianghan Plain is rich in straw biomass, which can steadily provide cheap raw materials for the production of our products.

business plan

In order to connect our project with reality, from the beginning we worked on how to commercialise the product. We found our target customers and gained an in-depth understanding of their values and needs. In collaboration with business experts, we conducted several analyses of our target customers, the product, the product market, the business strategy, the financial plan and our team. Combining the insights of the experts and the results of our analyses, we developed a business plan to commercialise the project. In order to verify the feasibility of the business plan, we participated in the China International "Internet+" Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition for Students. During the competition, we pitched our project to business experts across the country, which highlighted the potential of our business plan. On the following pages, you can see our analyses and assumptions about our customers, products and company. (on the entrepreneurship page)

(Figure 8 Team members participate in the China International "Internet+" College Students Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition)

Summary

Our integrative human practice is about bringing an idea to maturity and influencing society and the current climate crisis. In the beginning, we started with the idea of making biofuels and developing carbon fixation technologies to solve the climate crisis. Through our Integrated Human Practices, we eventually came up with the idea of solving the current dilemma by using non-food crops to produce aviation fuel. As you can see our journey has not been easy, but fortunately we have all found solutions to our problems.

To solve practical problems

The accelerated rise in the Earth's average temperature due to the burning of fossil fuels is having a catastrophic impact on the global climate. The aviation industry, as one of the major sources of greenhouse gas emissions, emitted about 1.8 per cent of the world's greenhouse gases in 2019, with Chinese flights accounting for 13 per cent of the total emissions. The aviation industry faces important challenges and responsibilities in addressing climate change.

Be responsible

Before interviewing each professor/expert, we make sure that the interviewee reads the informed consent form carefully. At the same time, we will strictly adhere to the original interview and will not alter the interview information according to our own ideas. We ensure the authenticity and reliability of the interview information while respecting the rights and opinions of the interviewee.

Be sustainable

We will use non-food crops as feedstock for aviation fuel, such as cellulose from corn cobs and straw. This approach helps to reduce reliance on traditional food supply chains and reduces the environmental and social impacts associated with food crops. By utilising waste and non-food biomass, we can reduce land use and competition while reducing greenhouse gas emissions and carbon footprint. This will help us address global environmental, social and economic challenges in an integrated manner.

Based on synthetic biology

We use synthetic biology to precisely design and optimise biological pathways for isobutanol production. At the same time, our research and applications are subject to rigorous experimental validation and safety assessment. The safety and sustainability of the production process is guaranteed.

A viable business plan

Under the guidance of business experts, we conducted target customer and market research and completed our business plan. In order to verify the feasibility of our business plan, we participated in an entrepreneurship competition to pitch our project and received external recognition and support.