want it?” Understanding that and being able to reproduce the process on a large scale would make it possible to farm algae that would either produce starch for use in food production or lipids for biofuels, depending on market conditions. Impact The Dutch-Chinese team is already able to make the alga switch between starch and lipids production in the lab. “It’s nice to be able to make a little oil in a test tube,” Professor Xu says. “But the key is to upscale the process. The only way our research, however fancy it is, can have an impact on society is if we can manipulate this switch on a large scale, outdoors. Professor Wijffels is an amazing engineer. He knows about big things. I work on a micro level, looking at test tubes. To engineer algae for fuel production requires both micro and macro skills. If our process is to be useful to society, it has to work on a large scale. But to achieve that, we first need to understand what happens within a single cell inside the alga.” Reason The joint project demonstrates how complementary the Qingdao and Wageningen institutes are. Professors Xu and Wijffels started the project even before securing additional funding for it. “That shows that our primary reason for cooperating is scientific,” says Professor Xu. The funding and support from both China and the Netherlands are crucial. “The Chinese government, for example, has set ambitious goals to reduce emissions and increase the production and use of clean energy. As for the Dutch, their agricultural research is among the very best in the world. Today, agriculture is no longer just about producing food, it’s also about energy. Together, we need to be the first to discover how to farm algae on a large scale as a sustainable source of bio-energy.”
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