The power of flight is a testament to human ingenuity and progress
Air-traffic map of a particularly busy day in May 2019, with 162,637 takeoffs recorded
100,000 flights fly every day uniting people and places
BUT DO YOU KNOW THE PRICE WE PAY?
900 million tonnes of CO2 is emitted annually by the aviation industry
It would take France 3 years to create an equivalent carbon footprint
"The increases in traffic has historically outpaced the improvements in technology"
- Dr. John Broderick
THE SAF REVOLUTION
A beacon of hope in the storm of climate change
Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) is a cleaner alternative to conventional jet fuel made using renewable or waste-based feedstocks
The power of Jatropha curcas
Jatropha-based jet biofuel has
60% lesser
greenhouse gases
Higher
heat of combustion
And Better
specific fuel consumption
as compared to conventional jet-fuel
Switching entirely to SAF brings us
65%
closer to
achieving NET-ZERO EMISSIONS
by 2050
BUT
this would require a production capacity
of 450bn
litres of SAF in the year 2050
HOWEVER
in the year 2022, production
capacity stood at
300mn
litres of SAF
SYN-BIO REVOLUTION
We are harnessing the prowess of synthetic-biology to mass-produce SAF and revolutionize the aviation sector
Our chassis, Yarrowia lipolytica is an oleaginous yeast known for its ability to accumulate large amounts of lipids
Drawing inspiration from Jatropha-based biofuel and exploiting the lipid accumulating ability of Yarrowia lipolytica, we came up with our novel project, JETROECO
We introduce thioesterases (JcFATA and JcFATB) from Jatropha curcas into our chassis Y. lipolytica to try and emulate a fatty acid profile similar to that of Jatropha curcas. We also introduce a photodecarboxylase (CvFAP) from Chlorella variablis in our chassis to convert the produced fatty acids into hydrocarbons in the presence of blue light