2015- the year in retrospect

It seems like only the other day that I wrote my piece on the year 2014 – the year 2015 simply flew past and here we are on the cusp of welcoming another year in our lives. For all the speed that 2015 breezed past us I must hasten to add that it was quite an eventful year.  We started the year planning for the next school reunion in July 2015 – we had just about recovered from the big one, the centenary year and we were already planning the next one in school.

On the work front we have made substantial strides in our efforts to teach the world how to grow our own fuel and our demonstration plant in Whyalla, South Australia went on stream and is now running 24x7, 365 days of the year. For the first time in the world we have been able to continuously produce crude oil from cultured marine algae grown in open ponds. While we are able to produce crude oil without difficulty we found that world crude oil prices were plummeting and it is well-nigh impossible to produce our green crude at prices as low as $40 per barrel. We soldiered on nonetheless and soon discovered that sewage treatment plants all over the world were faced with a huge problem of disposing off the bio-solids produced in their treatment plants – we collected the raw bio-solids and demonstrated that we could convert this nuisance product into valuable green crude just as we were able to do with algal biomass. What was interesting was that the sewage treatment plants were actually willing to pay to have their bio-solids taken away. Now that the feedstock for our bio-crude was cost negative to us, we are able to demonstrate that our bio-crude could actually be price-competitive with crude oil prices even when they hit rock bottom at $36 per barrel. We continue working on ways to grow our own fuel and reduce the carbon footprint of the world’s transportation sector.

Biosolids accumulate in the aeration pond of a Sewage Treatment Plant

 Sub-critical water reactor to convert carbonaceous biomass to bio-crude

 Our 5-step process to convert carbonaceous biomass to bio-crude

Our algal research has also yielded some other interesting results. We have found ways to grow an interesting marine alga that we discovered in a mangrove swamp this unique organism  is capable of producing very high quantities of Omega 3 fatty acids such as DHA and EPA. We have now standardised the culture protocol and are upscaling the production of this alga to produce these highly valuable neutraceuticals hitherto available only in fish oils. In yet another development we have been able to mass culture another alga that produces huge quantities of Beta glucans – this polysaccharide is critical in modulating the immune response of humans and animals and can double the capacity of an individual to resist infections especially in people whose immune systems are compromised (people with HIV, people who have had chemotherapy or radiotherapy etc) . We hope to be able to put these novel products in the market in the year 2016.

On the domestic front – the children and Sudha have kept good health and have been busy. Our son Ashwin formally qualified as a Nuclear Reactor Operator after being the only one among his peers to clear the Reactor Operator Qualifying Board of the Indian Navy. He is now certified to operate the nuclear reactor on board INS Chakra, India’s only operational nuclear submarine and is sailing somewhere at the bottom of the Andaman Sea as I write this. Our daughter has decided to join three of her former colleagues to set up a premium ladies fitness operation in Sarjapur , Bangalore, so we now have an entrepreneur in the family!

 Ashwin and Devika

 Ammu flanked by two of her former colleagues

 Back home in Kerala my mother was diagnosed with a malignancy of the uterus and had to undergo an open abdomen surgery which was painful. She has recovered well from the surgery and is now awaiting the results of the biopsy which will determine the future course of treatment she will have to undergo.

Our school reunion in July this year was great fun for me because I got around to meeting lots of folks as I did not have any official duties as I did in the previous year which was the centenary year. We had alumni come in from all over the world and the fun and fellowship never seemed to end.

Old Georgians from Sydney and Melbourne in Australia, Basingstoke, UK, Calcutta, Calicut and Gobichettipalayam in India gather at the School Fete.

In November this year a group of my university alumni worked out a plan to contact some of our Professors at university who were more than Professors to us – they were mentors. The plan was to get them and their spouses over to the university in the foothills of the Himalayas and honour them for their mentorship and achievements in research. Those selected readily agreed to do the difficult trip to the Himalayas in spite of being in their eighties and all of them got quite emotional about their time at the university and their students. It was such a gratifying few days with them.

Our mentors release the ‘Spirit of Pantnagar’ volume to commemorate the life time achievements of our mentors.

Barely had the reunion in school gotten over we were at the offsite reunion of our school alumni in Vythiri in Wynad in Kerala. It was a wonderful get together in a beautiful setting.

Old Georgians at the Offsite Reunion in Dec 2015 at Vythiri Village, Wynad, Kerala

Over the year we did have to deal with death and its consequences – we lost some very good friends and teachers. Worst of all some of our friends lost children in the prime of their youth - we wish them and all their families the strength to take their loss in their stride and move on in life.

Then there were the huge floods that ravaged our city in November and December. Luckily for us we were not affected in the area where we lived in the city but it was heart breaking to see the death and destruction that the floods brought to our city. Sudha and I were away in Kerala when the flooding happened so we really did not experience the extended loss of electrical power, the food shortages, the breakdown of the mobile telephony system in the city and other such issues.

Here’s wishing all of you my friends a merry Christmas and a very happy 2016. May the year ahead be all you would want it to be and may you all stay well and healthy through the coming year.