Friday, December 27, 2013

2013 - another year gone by!


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

There were of course numerous trips up into the Blue Mountains of South India for planning our school's centenary activities and of course for the annual school reunion in July on the beautiful campus of our alma mater. We also had ourselves a terrific time in Bangalore at the offsite reunion of school friends organised by the Bangalore Old Georgians who did a terrific job of organising a fun time for so many of us.

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


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