Time：Friday 1:30 PM, November 27, 2015
Location：Conference room in Biotechnology Building
Lecturer：Professor Yi-Heng Percival ZHANG
Virginia Tech, USA
Abstract:
The sustainability revolution is occurring in the 21st century. To address challenges pertaining to renewable energy storage, distribution, and applications, I wish to suggest the electricity-carbohydrate-hydrogen (ECHo) cycle bridging among primary energies and secondary energies. Carbohydrates are sources of food, feed, liquid biofuels, and renewable materials and would be a high-density hydrogen carrier and electricity storage compound (e.g., more than 3,000 Wh/kg). One element of this ECHo cycle can be converted to another reversibly and efficiently depending on resource availability, needs, and costs. Beyond living organisms’ constraints, in vitro synthetic (enzymatic) biosystem (ivSB) implements complicated biological reaction via the in vitro assembly of numerous standardized and exchangeable enzymes or their complexes and/or (biomimetic) cofactors. Compared to microbial fermentation, ivSB features numerous manufacturing advantages, such as high product yield, fast reaction rate, easy product separation, easy access and control for open systems, tolerance of toxic compounds and broad reaction conditions, and so on. In this talk, I will introduce the concept of ivSB; present its potential applications developed by my group: (i) sweet hydrogen produced from sugars; (ii) high-energy density (metal-free) sugar biobattery; (iii) artificial starch made from nonfood biomass, as well as (iv) artificial photosynthesis (conceptual). In a word, ivSB would lead to a biomanufacturing paradigm shift and carbohydrate would be the best energy storage compound, replacing crude oil.
Introduction:
Professor Yi-Heng Percival ZHANG obtained MSc from East China University of Science and Technology (1996), PhD from Dartmouth College, USA in Prof. Lee R Lynd’s laboratory (2002) and did Postdoc in the same lab until 2004. He took an Assistant Professor position in 2005 and became full Professor in 2014 at Virginia Tech, USA. In 2014, he took a PI position in Tianjin Institute of Industrial Biotechnology, CAS, China. He current also holds Chief Scientific Officer position in Gate Fuels Inc. and Cell Free Bioinnovations Inc.
Prof. Zhang’s research lies in constructing in vitro synthetic (enzymatic) biosystems for the production of renewable energy, food, materials and electricity. His recent achievements include sweet hydrogen production, enzymatic conversion of cellulose to starch and high energy density sugar (bio)battery. He has published over 100 papers on prestigious journals including Nature Communications, PNAS, Angewandte Chemie International Edition and Metabolic Engineering. He was granted over 20 patents. His H-factor is 36 and his paper has been cited over 5000 times.
Contact: Prof. Zongbao K. Zhao