University of Tübingen

Greek Yogurt Fuels Your Morning…And Your Plane?

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Researchers have developed a method for turning yogurt whey into bio-oil, which could potentially be processed into biofuel for planes

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Do you, like many Americans, enjoy the tangy taste and thick creaminess of Greek yogurt? Well, one day your yogurt could help fuel airplanes.

Researchers at Cornell University and the University of Tübingen in Germany have developed a method of turning yogurt whey, the liquid left behind after straining out the milk proteins, into bio-oil. This bio-oil could then potentially be processed into biofuel for vehicles, including planes.

Lars Angenent, the microbiologist and environmental engineer who led the research, says he watched the Greek yogurt craze explode in upstate New York while he was working at Cornell. Local Greek yogurt producers used fleets of trucks to haul away liquid whey – for every kilogram of yogurt, there’s two to three kilograms of whey left behind, and America produces more than 770,000 metric tons of Greek yogurt annually.

“If we treat the waste on site – that means at the yogurt plant – less trucking is needed, which reduces the carbon footprint,” Angenent says.

His lab had discovered how to convert lactic acid into bio-oil, and Angenent knew whey would be a good source for lactic acid. They tested the process and found that it did indeed work the way they’d hoped. The team recently published their research in the journal Joule.

The bio-oil produced from whey could also potentially be used as animal feed. Its natural antimicrobial capabilities could help replace antibiotics, which are commonly used to treat farm animals but bring risks of antibiotic resistance.

“[If] the bio-oil can be fed to the cows and acts as an antimicrobial, we would close the circle, and the Greek yogurt industry could become more sustainable,” says Angenent.

Angenent has created a company to explore the commercial potential of this technology, and hopes to see the bio-oil in use by 2020. He and his team are also investigating the biofuel potential of other waste liquids.

Joanne Ivancic, executive director of Advanced Biofuels USA, a nonprofit dedicated to promoting biofuels, says Angenent’s research is promising, but that the future of any biofuel depends on numerous political and economic factors.

“The commercial potential of anything that’s going to take the place of petroleum or natural gas fuels depends on the price of oil and the price of natural gas,” Ivancic says. “They have to be competitive because supportive government policy is just not there.”

Since the early 2000s, conservationists and manufacturers alike have hoped that biofuels could help deal with both climate change and issues of fuel security. But growing crops like corn and soybeans to produce ethanol, the most common biofuel, has some major environmental and social downsides. These crops require massive amounts of fertile land, displacing crops that could be used for food and sucking up resources like fertilizer and water.

So researchers have been turning to other potential biofuel sources. Some are looking at plants such as hemp and switchgrass that are less resource-intensive than corn or soybeans. Sugar beets, termed “energy beets,” by their supporters, is another crop with fuel potential, and has the added benefit of remediating phosphorous in the soil, helping to keep nearby watersheds healthy. This past summer ExxonMobil announced the creation of a strain of genetically modified algae they say produces twice as much oil as regular algae. One company is beginning to process household garbage like eggshells and coffee grounds into jet fuel. In late 2016, Alaska Airlines powered a cross-country flight with a new biofuel produced by wood scraps. Like the yogurt whey, the wood has the benefit of being a waste product that would otherwise present a disposal challenge; many of the most promising potential biofuel materials are waste products or “co-products” of other processes.

Ivancic is optimistic that increasing cultural awareness about the perils of climate change will help make these kinds of biofuels economically feasible.

“In the 1970s we recognized the Clean Water Act and the Clean Air Act,” she says. “If we can tap into that same kind of concern for the environment then we may get the policies and the consumer demand that we need.”

Polio Virus in Syria and Israel May Endanger Europe.

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Two infectious disease experts warn that a new polio outbreak in Syria caused by wild-type polio virus 1 (WPV1) and asymptomatic cases in Israel might endanger Europe and other neighboring regions, according to correspondence published online November 8 in the Lancet.

“[The World Health Organization] has confirmed an outbreak of at least ten cases of polio in Syria, where vaccination coverage has dramatically decreased during the civil war,” write Professor Martin Eichner, from the Institute of Clinical Epidemiology and Applied Biometry, University of Tübingen, and Stefan Brockmann, from the Department for Infection Control, Reutlingen Regional Public Health Office, Germany. “Furthermore, [WPV1] has been isolated from sewage and faeces from asymptomatic carriers in Israel since February, 2013.

“Moreover, hundreds of thousands of people are fleeing Syria and seek refuge in neighbouring countries and Europe,” they continue. During the Hajj in Saudi Arabia last month, visitors from countries with known polio transmission were vaccinated, but Syria was not included with those countries.

“The potential risk of transmission to [the European Union (EU)] and elsewhere documents the need for strong ongoing global efforts to eradicate this disease,” CDC Director Tom Frieden, MD, MPH, told Medscape Medical News. “Polio anywhere is a threat of polio everywhere.”

The situation in the Middle East, combined with the vaccination approach used in Europe, is concerning, according to the authors. Most EU countries currently use inactivated polio vaccine (IPV) rather than oral polio vaccination (OPV). Similar to many other regions, most EU states discontinued use of OPV because of rare reports that it caused acute flaccid paralysis (AFP), even though OPV offers high protection against acquiring and transmitting the infection. Only some EU member states still permit OPV use, and none has a stockpile of it.

In contrast, the more widely used IPV is highly effective in preventing AFP and active polio disease, but is only partially effective in preventing infection with polio virus. For decades, Europe has been free of circulating polio viruses and, therefore, IPV has been sufficient.

However, IPV will only continue to be effective in preventing transmission if vaccination coverage continues to be very high, if hygienic standards are good throughout the population, and if there is low crowding. These conditions could easily be disrupted by the present situation of large numbers of refugees fleeing from Syria to Europe and other neighboring countries.

If the polio virus is reintroduced into the community, herd immunity may be insufficient to prevent sustained transmission in European regions where vaccination coverage is low, such as Bosnia and Herzegovina (87%), Ukraine (74%), and Austria (IPV coverage rate 83%).

For every 200 WPV1 infections, only 1 results in symptomatic polio. Therefore, hundreds of individuals could be infected and the virus could circulate for nearly a year before an outbreak could be identified from a single case of AFP.

“Vaccinating only Syrian refugees — as has been recommended by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control — must be judged as insufficient; more comprehensive measures should be taken into consideration;” the authors conclude. “Routine screening of sewage for poliovirus has not been done in most European countries, but this intensified surveillance measure should be considered for settlements with large numbers of Syrian refugees.”

Implications for the United States

In the United States, routine vaccination against polio currently uses IPV, which may create concerns similar to those now affecting Europe.

“The IPV vaccine is effective at preventing disease, but [OPV] is more effective at preventing even asymptomatic infection,” Jennifer L. Lyons, MD, from the Division of Neurological Infections, Department of Neurology, Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts, told Medscape Medical News. “However, the OPV has been associated with a low but known risk of vaccine-related infection and, as such, is no longer routinely used.”

“It is difficult to project the effect that this scenario will have on the US, but vigilance is always good practice,” Dr. Lyons said. “Adherence to vaccination guidelines and maintenance of proper hygiene are likely the best preventive measures to take.”

Dr. Frieden told Medscape Medical News that IPV is used in Israel, as well as in the EU and the United States. “There have been no cases of indigenous polio in these regions, an especially significant fact considering that poliovirus has been found in environmental sewage samples in Israel,” Dr. Frieden said. “IPV is effective in protecting individuals against polio. The US has been free of indigenous polio since 1979.”

He also noted that the risk of importations of any infectious disease, including polio, into the United States is always a concern and highlights the importance of being vaccinated and of working to control infectious diseases wherever they are spreading.

“CDC works to minimize the risk for polio in the US through its traveler’s health and global migration program and global health program,” Dr. Frieden concluded. “We collaborate closely with international organizations and other countries to implement international and US guidance on vaccination for immigrants. In response to the polio cases in the Middle East and Horn of Africa, CDC has issued new recommendations for polio vaccine use among high-risk refugee populations and is working with international partners to implement them. Through the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, CDC works intensively with international health partners and Rotary International to eradicate polio at its source.”