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What I'm going to do is, I'm going to explain to you

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an extreme green concept

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that was developed at NASA's Glenn Research Center

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in Cleveland, Ohio.

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But before I do that, we have to go over

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the definition of what green is,

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cos a lot of us have a different definition of it.

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Green. The product is created through

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environmentally and socially conscious means.

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There's plenty of things that are being called green now.

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What does it actually mean?

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We use three metrics to determine green.

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The first metric is: is it Sustainable?

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Which means: Are you preserving what you are doing for future use

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or for future generations?

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Is it alternative? Is it different than what is being used today,

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or does it have a lower carbon footprint

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than what's used conventionally?

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And three: Is it renewable?

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Does it come from Earth's natural replenishing resources,

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such as Sun, wind and water?

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Now my task at NASA is to develop

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the next generation of aviation fuels.

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Extreme green. Why aviation?

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The field of aviation uses more fuel than just about

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every other combined. We need to find an alternative.

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Also it's a natural aeronautics directive.

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One of the national aeronautics goals is to develop

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the next generation of fuels, bio fuels, using

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domestic and safe, friendly, resources.

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Now combating that challenge

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we have to also meet the big three metric --

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actually, this is an extreme green, for us is all three together

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that's why you see the plus there I was told to say that.

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All right! So, it has to be the BIG 3 at GRC, that's another metric.

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97% of the world's water is saltwater.

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How about we use that. Combine that with number 3.

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Do not use arable land.

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Because crops are already growing on that land

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that's very scarce around the world.

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Number two: Don't compete with food crops.

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That's already a well established entity, they don't need another entry.

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And lastly the most precious resource we have on this Earth

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is fresh water. Don't use fresh water.

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If 97.5% of the world's water is salt water

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2.5% is fresh water. Less than a half percent

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of that is accessible for human use.

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But 60% of the population lives within that one percent.

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So, combating my problem was, now I have to be extreme green

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and meet the big three. Ladies and gentlemen,

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welcome to the GreenLab Research Facility.

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This is a facility dedicated to the next generation

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of aviation fuels using halophytes.

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A halophyte is a salt tolerating plant.

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Most plants don't like salt, but halophytes tolerate salt.

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We are also are using weeds

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and we are also using algae.

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The good thing about our lab is, we've had

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thirty six hundred visitors in the last two years.

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Why do you think that's so?

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Because we are on to something special.

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So, in the lower you see the GreenLab obviously

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in our right hand side you see algae.

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If you are into the business of the next generation

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aviation fuels, algae is a viable option,

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there's a lot of funding right now

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and we have an algae to fuels program.

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There's two types of algae growing.

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One is a closed photobioreactor that you see here,

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and what you see on the other side is our species

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we are currently using a species called Scenedesmus diamorphis.

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Our job at NASA is to take the experimental and computational

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and make a better mixing for the closed photobioreactors.

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Now the problems of closed photobioreactors are:

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they are quite expensive, they are automated

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and it's very difficult to get them in large scale.

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So on large scale what do we use?

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We use open pond systems. Now, around the world

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they are growing algae, with this racetrack designs

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that you see here. Looks like an oval with a

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paddle wheel and mixes really well but

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when it gets around the last turn, which I call turn four -- it's stagnant.

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We actually have a solution for that

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in the GreenLab open pond system

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we use something that happens in nature: waves.

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We actually use wave technology on our open pond systems

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we have 95% mixing and our lipid content is higher

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than our closed photobioreactor system

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which we think is significant.

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There's a drawback to algae, however: it's very expensive.

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Is there a way to produce algae

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inexpensively? And the answer is: yes.

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We do the same thing we do with halophytes

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and that is: climatic adaptation.

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In our GreenLab we have six primary ecosystems

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that range from freshwater all the way to saltwater.

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What we do: we take a potential species, we start at freshwater

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we add a little bit more salt, when the second tank here

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will be the same ecosystem as Brazil

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-- right next to the sugar cane fields you can have our plants --

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the next tank represents Africa, the next tank represents Arizona,

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the next tank represents Florida,

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and the next tank represents California, or the open ocean.

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What we are trying to do is to come up with a single species

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that can survive anywhere in the world, where there's barren desert.

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We are being very successful so far.

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Now, here's one of the problems. If you are a farmer

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you need five things to be successful: you need seeds

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you need soil, you need water, and you need sun,

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and the last thing that you need is fertilizer.

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Most people use chemical fertilizers. But guess what

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we do not use chemical fertilizer. Wait a second!

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I just saw lots of green in your green lab. You have to use fertilizer.

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Believe it or not, in our analysis of our saltwater ecosystems

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80% of what we need are in these tanks themselves.

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The 20% that's missing is nitrogen and phosphorous.

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We have a natural solution: fish.

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No we don't cut up the fish and put them in there. (Laughter)

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Fish waste is what we use. As a matter of fact

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we use freshwater mollies, that we've used our climatic adaptation technique

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from freshwater all the way to seawater.

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Freshwater mollies: cheap, they love to make babies,

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and they love to go to the bathroom.

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And the more they go to the bathroom, the more fertilizer we get,

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the better off we are, believe it or not.

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It should be noted that we use sand as our soil,

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regular beach sand. Fossilized krill.

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All right. So, a lot of people ask me, How did you get started?

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Well, we got started in what we call indoor bio fuels lab.

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It's a seedling lab. We have 26 different species of halophytes

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and five are winners. What we do here is --

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actually it should be called a death lab, 'cos we try to

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kill the seedlings, make them rough --

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and then we come to the green lab.

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What you see in the lower corner

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is a waste photo treatment plant experiment

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that we are growing, a macro algae that I'll talk about in a minute.

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And lastly it's me actually working in the lab to prove that I do work,

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I don't just talk about what I do. (Laughter)

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All right. Here's the plant species. Salicornia virginica.

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It's a wonderful plant. I love that plant.

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Everywhere we go we see it. It's all over the place from Maine

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all the way to California. We love that plant.

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Second is Salicornia bigelovi. Very difficult to get around the world.

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It is the highest lipid content that we have,

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but it has a short coming: it's short.

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Now you take europaea, which is the largest

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or the tallest plant that we have, and what we are trying to do

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with natural selection or adaptive biology, combine all three

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to make a higher growth high lipid plant.

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Next -- when a hurricane decimated the Delaware Bay -- soy bean fields: gone.

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We came up with an idea: can you have a plant

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that has a land reclamation positive in Delaware, and the answer is yes.

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It's called seashore mallow. Kosteletzkya virginica

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-- say that five times if you can, fast.

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This is a 100% usable plant. The seeds: bio fuels. The rest: cattle feed.

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It's there for ten years, it's working very well.

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Now we get to Chaetomorpha.

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This is a macro-algae that loves

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excess nutrients. If you are in the aquarium industry

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you know we use it to clean up dirty tanks.

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This species is so significant to us.

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The properties are very close to plastic.

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We are trying right now to convert this macro-algae into a bio-plastic.

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If we are successful, we will revolutionize the plastics industry.

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So, we have a seed to fuel program. We have to do something

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with this biomass that we have.

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And so we do GC extraction, lipid optimization, so on and so forth,

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because our goal really is to come up with

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the next generation of aviation fuels, aviation specifics, so on and so forth.

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So, so far we talked about water and fuel,

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but along the way we found out something interesting about Salicornia:

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it's a food product.

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So we talk about ideas worth spreading, right?

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How about this: in Sub-Saharian Africa, next to the sea, saltwater,

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barren desert, how about we take that plant,

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plant it, have use for food, have use for fuel.

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We can make that happen, inexpensively.

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You can see there's a greenhouse in Germany

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that sells it as a health food product.

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This is harvested, and in the middle here is a shrimp dish, and it's been pickled

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so I have to tell a joke. Salicornia is known as sea beans

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saltwater asparagus, and pickle weed.

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So we are pickling pickle weed, in the middle.

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Oh I thought it was funny. (Laughter)

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And at the bottom is seamanÂs mustard. It does make sense,

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this is a logical snack. You have mustard,

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you are a seaman, you see the halophyte, you mix it together

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it's a great snack with some crackers.

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All right. And last: garlic, with Salicornia, which is what I like.

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So, water, fuel, and food.

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None of this is possible without the GreenLab Team.

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Just like the Miami Heat has the big three, we have the big three at NASA GRC.

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That's myself, professor Bob Hendricks, who's our fearless leader, and doctor Arnon Chait.

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The backbone of the GreenLab is students.

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Over the last two years we had thirty five different students

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from around the world working at GreenLab.

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As a matter fact my division chief says a lot, "you have a green university",

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I say, "I'm ok with that, 'cos we are nurturing

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the next generation of extreme green thinkers, which is significant."

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So, in first summary I presented to you what we think

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is a global solution for food, fuel and water.

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There's something missing to be complete.

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Clearly we use electricity. We have a solution for you --

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we are using clean energy sources here.

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So, we have two wind turbines connected to the GreenLab

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we have four or five more hopefully coming soon.

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We are also using something that is quite interesting --

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there is a solar array field at NASA's Glenn Research Center,

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hasn't been used for fifteen years.

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Along with some of my electrical engineering colleagues

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we realized that they are still viable

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so we are refurbishing them right now

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in about thirty days or so they will be connected to the GreenLab.

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And the reason why you see red, red and yellow, is

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a lot of people think NASA employees don't work on Saturday --

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this is a picture taken on Saturday, there's no cars around but you see

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my truck in yellow, I work on Saturday. (Laughter)

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This is a proof to you that I'm working.

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'Cos we do what it takes to get the job done, most people know that.

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Here's a concept with this:

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we are using the GreenLab for a micro-grid testbed

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for the smart-grid concept in Ohio.

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We have the ability to do that, and I think it's going to work.

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So, GreenLab Research Facility.

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A self sustainable renewable energy ecosystem was presented today.

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We really, really hope this concept catches on, worldwide.

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We think we have a solution, for food, water, fuel and now energy. Complete.

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It's extreme green, it's sustainable, alternative, and renewable

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and it meets the big three at GRC:

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don't use arable land, don't compete with food crops,

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and most of all, don't use fresh water.

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So I get a lot of questions about what are you doing in that lab?

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And I usually say, None of your business, that's what I'm doing in the lab. (Laughter)

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And believe it or not, my number one goal,

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for working on this project, is:

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I want to help save the world. Thank you.

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(Applause)