“Green Ocean LLC” entrepreneurship Initiatives
Microplastic pollution has reached an all-time high in the ocean as well as rivers, lakes, and streams. Approximately 8 million tons of plastic are dropped into the ocean each year [1] PET is one of the most common and dangerous plastics in our oceans today, with it being the main compound in water/soda bottles, and it being the main source of the leached pollutant DEHP, a cardiotoxin.
Microplastic pollution is also much more widespread than initially thought. While the effect of the particles on humans is still undetermined, they are able to enter the gut and bloodstream to cause blockages[2] . In order to combat the microplastic pollution level, we seek to express an enzyme (PETase) which breaks down the most common form of microplastic in the ocean: polyethylene. The enzyme will be expressed in common oceanic cyanobacteria (Synechococcus elongatus ), and the plastic will be hydrolysed to form its monomers. We take advantage of the fact that the cyanobacteria thrived in the ocean environment. Since we will house the enzyme in a host that already lives in the ocean, the impact on the environment will be minimal and obviate the problems encountered by filters[3] .Business Thesis
What are we selling - cyano and technology (we can incorporate enzymes for other microplastics). We plan to sell our product to companies such as 5 GYRES, Algalita , 4Ocean and Oceana that are focused on large-scale ocean cleanup efforts. We are partnering with museums and student organizations to target our peers and create a platform on social media to allow people to know they can make a difference through supporting science. Already we have received support from Centro, a web design company in the Chicago area, purely interested in the philanthropic side of the project.
Competitive Analysis
Our main competitors are Tapp Water and GoJelly. Tapp Water is a water filtration company specifically focusing on removing microplastics from tap water through filters. Tapp Water’s solution to microplastic pollution is very localized, and it is a synthetic construction. GoJelly is a research project intending to use jellyfish membranes for water filtration by introducing pollution and filtering it out. GoJelly is a more natural solution, yet it is significantly more expensive and cannot be scaled. In contrast, our solution, which uses naturally existing organisms, will be inexpensive, scalable, and not impact the environment.
For traditional algae culturing ventures (often for the purpose of biofuel production) estimate a deployable cost of ~25,000 USD to set up a photobioreactor capable of producing a max ~10,000kg algae yearly. However, because the algae is self sustaining in an oceanic environment we would only need to use a large scale photobioreactor for the initial culture of the algae. The possibility of periodically renting a bioreactor, or perhaps building a much smaller scale system , puts the capital cost at around 10,000USD or less. Profits from algal production and implementation would be pretty high after initial algal creation. It only costs $100per 1k kg of algae to maintain the nutrients of the culture, and implementation would be done by the companies we would sell the algae to (mentioned previously). The selling rate for algae is around 1.2k per 1k algae, so we would see a profit of around 1k per 1k kg of algae per project.
Sources for business analysis: (1, 2,)
Timeline
Year One would be finding investors to fund initial culturing set up, as well as working with customers to plan ocean clean-up projects.
Year Two would see the first trial project and the first revenue from selling our algae.
Year Three would be the start of a 2 project per year standard. Revenue would most likely balance out capital investment at this point.
Year Five we would have enough profits to start adding projects and expanding outreach
Impact
Green Ocean will reduce the amount of plastic pollution in the oceans by a tremendous amount and have a widespread impact than any projects currently in development. The method is natural, and the ecosystem will not be adversely impacted. Our technology is also the first non-physical method of ocean plastic clean-up, and one of the only possible solutions to microplastic clean-up.
Investor Support
Our plan is to continue engineering the vectors in cyanobacteria for the most efficient degradation of PET. This research and development will primarily be sustained through pledges and partnerships with other companies to continue implementation. We currently have a sponsorship with VectorBuilder.com, who will help synthesize our vector.
Awards
The project won the 3rd place in Intinium, a Chicago area pitch competition, In which we competed against 30 other teams and pitched our idea to judges.We have raised money from our university and other sources to provide for the costs of developing the technology and participating at iGEM.
Intellectual Property
Green Ocean is a limited liability company. The company has filed a non-provisional patent that covers the PETase harboring cyanobacteria as well as the method for producing the bacteria.