CARBON RECYCLING: CONVERTING WASTE DERIVED GHG INTO CHEMICALS, FUELS AND ANIMAL FEED (CCnet).

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CONTEXTThe continued use of fossil fuels is no longer tenable. A finite resource, their extraction, processing and exploitation results in environmental pollution and increased greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the form of carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4). Worldwide, net emissions have increased about 40 percent since the Industrial Revolution began in 1750, the majority of which has taken place in recent times, ie., 35 percent between 1990 and 2010. GHG emissions are the drivers of climate change. Thus, over the last 50 years average air and sea temperatures have risen dramatically, concomitant with melting of the polar ice caps and a general reduction in snow. These changes are resulting in increased frequencies of droughts and heat waves, flooding, tropical cyclones and hurricanes, more extreme precipitation events and rising sea levels. The latter threaten the continued existence of coastal communities (8 of the 10 largest cities in the world are near a coast) and even entire low-lying island nations such as the Maldives, while the former are causing destructive wildfires, failed crops, and low water supplies. The extreme effects on agricultural activity exacerbate one of the major challenges facing humankind - increases in population size. Thus, the global human population has grown from 1 billion in 1800 to 7.616 billion in 2018 and is predicted to 11.2 billion by 2100. The world is at a crossroads. How can we feed the world's burgeoning population in the face of the destructive forces of climate change? Equally important, how can prevent further GHG emissions by finding new ways to make the chemicals and fuels society needs from a source other than fossil fuels. AIMS AND OBJECTIVES.A unifying solution is to use the very single carbon (C1) GHGs that are causing the problem as the building block for chemical, fuel and food manufacture. This is made possible by the existence of 'gas-eating' bacteria that can use the carbon in CO2 and CH4, and convert it to the chemicals we need, and even to make single cell protein (SCP) that can be used to feed the dairy and meat livestock humankind rely on. Most microbes grow on sugar, such as the yeast used to make beer and wine. But the bacteria under investigation in this community of researchers consume single carbon gases, such as CO2 and CH4.Funded by the BBSRC and EPSRC, it is the purpose of the Carbon reCycling Network (CCnet) to develop the biological processes required to recycle the carbon in GHG and convert it into the chemical and food resources we need. Success will require the participation of many different fields of science to design, test and build the biological processes needed. It will require the amalgamated efforts of biologists, chemists, engineers and mathematics if the breakthroughs are to be made. Crucially, the systems to be developed and their eventual operation will require the involvement of social scientists to ensure that the work undertaken is performed in a responsible way and there are no un-thought of consequences to humankind or the planet. Crucially it will need the involvement of industry who can take on the ideas and processes developed and turn them into real world solutions.APPLICATIONS AND BENEFITSCCnet will act as the focus for the academic and industrial researchers needed who together can change the world we live in for the better. It will train and inform young reseachers, hold the meetings, workshops and forums needed to discuss and formulate planned experiments. The best concepts will receive seed corn funding to test the assumptions made and to amass the data need to attract the larger sums of money needed to translate their ideas into the real world. Through this collegiate approach, and by working with industry, CCnet will make a difference. It will help reduce GHG emissions, helping the UK to meet its targets, and sustainably generate the chemicals and fuels our society and the world needs.