{"id":25763,"date":"2015-05-05T02:22:38","date_gmt":"2015-05-05T00:22:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rss.nova-institut.net\/public.php?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.biofuelsdigest.com%2Fbdigest%2F2015%2F04%2F26%2Fradical-dude-worlds-first-surfboard-made-from-algae%2F"},"modified":"2015-05-03T17:11:39","modified_gmt":"2015-05-03T15:11:39","slug":"surfing-into-a-greener-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/surfing-into-a-greener-future\/","title":{"rendered":"Surfing into a Greener Future"},"content":{"rendered":"

UC San Diego\u2019s efforts to produce innovative and sustainable solutions to the world\u2019s environmental problems have resulted in a partnership with the region\u2019s surfing industry to create the world\u2019s first algae-based, sustainable surfboard.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The surfboard was publicly unveiled and presented Tuesday evening, a day before Earth Day, to San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer at San Diego Symphony Hall, where he hosted the premiere of the National Geographic \u201cWorld\u2019s Smart Cities: San Diego<\/a>\u201d documentary. The program, which features innovations from UC San Diego, is scheduled to air Saturday, April 25 and May 2 on the National Geographic Channel.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur hope is that Mayor Faulconer will put this surfboard in his office so everyone can see how San Diego is a hub not only for innovation, but also for collaboration at many different levels,\u201d said Stephen Mayfield, a professor of biology and algae geneticist at UC San Diego who headed the effort to produce the surfboard. \u201cAn algae-based surfboard perfectly fits with the community and our connection with the ocean and surfing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mayfield, an avid surfer for the past 45 years, joined Cardiff professional surfer Rob Machado and Marty Gilchrist of Oceanside-based Arctic Foam, the largest surfboard blank manufacturer in North America, to present the board to Mayor Faulconer.<\/p>\n

The project began several months ago at UC San Diego when undergraduate biology students working in Mayfield\u2019s laboratory to produce biofuels from algae joined a group of undergraduate chemistry students to solve a basic chemistry problem: how to make the precursor of the polyurethane foam core of a surfboard from algae oil. Polyurethane surfboards today are made exclusively from petroleum.<\/p>\n

\u201cMost people don\u2019t realize that petroleum is algae oil,\u201d explained Mayfield. \u201cIt\u2019s just fossilized, 300 million to 400 million years old and buried deep in underground.\u201d<\/p>\n

Students from the laboratories of Michael Burkart, a professor of chemistry and biochemistry, and Robert \u201cSkip\u201d Pomeroy, a chemistry instructor who helps students recycle waste oil into a biodiesel that powers some UC San Diego buses, first determined how to chemically change the oil obtained from laboratory algae into different kinds of \u201cpolyols.\u201d Mixed with a catalyst and silicates in the right proportions, these polyols expand into a foam-like substance that hardens into the polyurethane that forms a surfboard\u2019s core.<\/p>\n

To obtain additional high-quality algae oil, Mayfield, who directs UC San Diego\u2019s California Center for Algae Biotechnology, or \u201cCal-CAB,\u201d called on Solazyme, Inc. The California-based biotech, which produces renewable, sustainable oils and ingredients, supplied a gallon of algae oil to make the world\u2019s first algae-based surfboard blank. After some clever chemistry at UC San Diego, Arctic Foam successfully produced and shaped the surfboard core and glassed it with a coat of fiberglass and renewable resin.<\/p>\n

Although the board\u2019s core is made from algae, it is pure white and indistinguishable from most plain petroleum-based surfboards. That\u2019s because the oil from algae, like soybean or safflower oils, is clear.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the future, we could make the algae surfboards \u2018green\u2019 by adding a little color from the green algae to showcase their sustainability,\u201d said Mayfield. \u201cBut right now we wanted to make it as close as we could to the real thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

The algae surfboard not only represents the kind of collaboration that is the hallmark of UC San Diego, but the fusion of biotechnology, surfing and environmentally conscious thinking that has made the La Jolla campus and its environs such a desirable place to work and live for scientists, innovators and those who cherish the coastal environment.<\/p>\n

Mayfield said that, like other surfers, he has long been faced with a contradiction: His connection to the pristine ocean environment requires a surfboard made from petroleum.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs surfers more than any other sport, you are totally connected and immersed in the ocean environment,\u201d he explained. \u201cAnd yet your connection to that environment is through a piece of plastic made from fossil fuels.\u201d<\/p>\n

But now, he explained, surfers can have a way to surf a board that, at least at its core, comes from a sustainable, renewable source. \u201cIn the future, we\u2019re thinking about 100 percent of the surfboard being made that way\u2014the fiberglass will come from renewable resources, the resin on the outside will come from a renewable resource,\u201d Mayfield said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis shows that we can still enjoy the ocean, but do so in an environmentally sustainable way,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In California, Solazyme’s oils have been instrumental in creating the world’s first algae-based, sus…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","nova_meta_subtitle":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5572],"tags":[7190],"supplier":[1929,12050,4146],"class_list":["post-25763","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bio-based","tag-algae","supplier-national-geographic","supplier-terravia","supplier-uc-san-diego"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25763","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25763"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25763\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25763"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25763"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25763"},{"taxonomy":"supplier","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/supplier?post=25763"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}