It never ceases to amaze me how fast the year 2013 went by - it seems like just
the other day that we were ushering in the year 2013 and here I am writing
about the year in retrospect!
All through 2013 the work-life balance has been fantastic and
professionally much of has gone to plan. We have been successful in growing our
algae in huge open ponds, been able to harvest them without spending too much
money or energy and then the harvested wet algal biomass has been successfully
processed into bio-crude - pretty much just as petroleum crude was made
naturally below the earth's surface over millions of years, only we do it a lot
faster and sustainably! We've even managed to take the renewable algal bio-crude and fractionate
it into 12 different fractions of petro-products that include petrol, diesel,
jet fuel, kerosene and naphtha. For us this was a vindication of our stand that
we need only to find ways to maximise production of biomass in an energetically
and economically sustainable way to be able to produce crude oil cost-competitively
vis-a-vis petro-crude. Here in Chennai, India we have been working on ways to
turn lowly algae into crude oil and much of our research work here has found
application in our demonstration plant being built down under in Whyalla, South
Australia. We are more than half way through building this demonstration
facility that will go on-stream in January 2014. It will be the first facility
in the world where it will be possible to go from algae grown in test-tubes to
barrels of bio-crude and all this using sea-water and barren land by the sea thus
avoiding any food vs. fuel competition.
Pictured
above is our Demonstration Plant under-construction in Whyalla, South Australia
Hopefully it will all happen at a cost that is acceptable to the world. Fingers
crossed!
Fractionally distilled algal bio-crude
converted to a range of petro-products
I have traveled a fair bit this year,
starting with a trip in February to France where I caught up with Kenneth
Birbeck and his family in Normandy. Ken's aunt was one of the first
English-women to volunteer to travel to India to join the teaching staff of our
fledgling school in the hills of Kodaikanal back in the early twenties. Thanks
to Ken and his aunt's meticulously kept diaries we have a great idea of what it
was like in the early years of our school which turns 100 years old in 2014.
With Ken and Claudie in Normandy, France
Sudha and I then traveled to Australia to join a few school buddies at their
Australian Old Georgian Reunion in Inverloch in the State of Victoria where we
had ourselves a great time catching up with friends from across Australia and a
few from the UK.
With friends from school in Melbourne enroute to Australian Old Georgian Reunion
On the family front it was the wedding
of our Naval Officer son Ashwin that took up all our time and energy - yes, it
all finally came together in a most enjoyable two- day celebration in early
November and we had the honour of having some of our closest friends from
school, my University and Sudha's childhood in attendance. Hats off to so many
of our friends who travelled from the US, Europe, Australia, the UAE and Malaysia
just to be there with us at the wedding.
We're six of us now that make up our family
We
have been lucky to have a healthy year with nobody really having to undergo any
significant health related issues. Our daughter, Ammu and husband Arun have
been busy in Bangalore with work, their adorable Cocker Spaniel Mousse and also
with a full house at home!
That's Mousse
The
newlyweds, Ashwin and Devika are now back in Bombay where Ashwin is based
aboard an Indian Navy submarine for now. Come January he will move to the
School of Advanced Undersea Warfare (SAUW) at Vizag to undergo a one year conversion
course that qualifies him to join the handful of Indian Naval officers who
operate India’s only operational nuclear submarine.
For
Sudha and me has suddenly dawned on us that with the marriage of the children
out of the way there is a fair bit of time hanging on our hands especially when
I get back from work in the evenings! We need to find ways to gainfully use the
spare time. But then again there's the school centenary coming up and there's
plenty to do on that front so that should keep me on my toes at least until
July 2014!
Sudha
and I would like to thank each and every one of you for the good times,
friendship and fellowship you have shared with us over the year 2013. Here's wishing all of you, friends and family, a merry Christmas and a very
happy 2014. We hope there will be at least a few occasions
in 2014 when our paths will cross and we get to sit down somewhere in the world
and catch up with all that's happening in your lives.
Warmest
regards
Sudha & Tusky
