Helen Whitaker
Journal Development Manager at BioMed Central
Helen is part of the Biological Sciences publishing team at BioMed Central. She obtained her PhD in molecular ecology from the University of Glasgow, UK. Her post-doctoral studies in aquaculture genetics took her from Scotland to South Africa, before joining BMC in 2008.
Biotechnology for a bio-based economy
On World Environment Day, we look at what biotechnology can do to help reduce our reliance on fossil fuels and move towards a bio-based economy.
Today is UN World Environment Day, a day for global citizens to increase awareness of and take action on the environmental issues facing us all. The 2019 theme is to beat air pollution, and in light of recent climate change protests, it seems that the need for cleaner alternatives to refining and burning fossil fuels has never been more keenly felt.
No carbon left behind
A bio-based economy, that harnesses biotechnology and renewable raw materials to create fuels, chemicals and materials, aims to reduce both the consumption of fossilized carbon and the resulting pollution.
I recently attended the Symposium on Biotechnology for Fuels and Chemicals, where the keynote speaker, Jennifer Holmgren (CEO of Lanzatech) set the tone of the meeting with a proposal that we should limit our fossil-based carbon budget to the essentials, and that energy can be carbon free. Her company has commercialized microbiological systems to make fuel ethanol and bio-based chemical products from industrial carbon waste streams (e.g. steel mill emissions, which would otherwise be released to the atmosphere). Jennifer’s ideology to conserve and recycle industrial carbon is neatly captured in her motto “no carbon left behind”.
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