Caterpillar Inc Heavy Equipment CSR by GineersNow Engineering GineersNow Engineering Magazine November 2016 | Page 27

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A BIOLOGICAL
EXTRACTION
FOR MINING AND
BIOENERGY
Juan Enriquez, a futurist
who professes the changes
that genomics will bring in
business, technnology and
society wants us to change
how we approach fuel or
bioenergy. Genomics, or
a branch in genetics that
deals with the analysis
and sequencing of an
organism's genome, is a
way in order to deal with
how bioenergy should be
utilized. Bioenergy on the
other hand, is what you get
when you use agricultural
or forest residues, organic
wastes and crops as a means
of extracting energy to
produce heat, electricity and
fuels. And genomics come
into play when the DNA
component and the biology
of the biomass resources are
altered to produce energry
instead of the usual massive
extraction (and destruction).
According to Enriquez,
mankind
has
always
resorted to brute force in
acquiring natural resources
and it would be better if
the thinking jumps from an
engineering approach, to
a chemical and to finally a
biological one. Let's say
for example the works
of the Nobel Prize and
Congressional Medal of
Honor winner Norman
Borlaug. He developed
and taught people a
more efficient war of
growing grains as part of
the Green Revolution. So
in order to gr