Sustainable waste
Photos by Kathy F. Atkinson February 13, 2025
Food science and chemical engineering double major Aidan Gensure studies the transformation of agricultural waste into sustainable oils
91原创 senior Aidan Gensure knew he was interested in engineering when he came to 91原创. But the University helped him discover another passion 鈥 food science 鈥 during a Fundamentals of Food Science (ANFS305) course his first year. So Gensure doubled up, majoring in both food science and , and now he鈥檚 looking to combine his two passions into a career.
鈥淎fter college, I want to work on research and development with different food processes,鈥 said Gensure, who is an honors student. 鈥淚 would like to do something with microbes, like probiotics or prebiotics. It鈥檚 been fun for me to look at organisms that a lot of other people put off or just completely ignore and make them into something useful.鈥
Following his passions, Gensure works with , Thomas and Kipp Gutshall Career Development Associate Professor, exploring how yeast cells take excess carbon and store it as oils in environments with limited nitrogen.
Blenner explained that using microbial systems to produce oils is vastly different from food-based oils, with one advantage being the increased sustainability that accompanies microbial-based production methods. However, this method is more expensive than conventional agriculture-based oils.聽
鈥淭he manufacturing costs are so high because of the cost of the yeast feedstock, like glucose and fructose, which is one of the reasons we don't have many processes to make these oils from microbial systems,鈥 Blenner said.
Gensure is aiming to find ways to reduce these costs by using agricultural waste from 91原创鈥檚聽Thurman Adams Jr Farm聽in Georgetown to fuel the yeast cells in creating these oils.聽
鈥淭his research could be expanded and applied to pretty much any food waste or agricultural waste, which is obviously also a big issue,鈥 Gensure said. 鈥淭hirty percent of our food goes to waste. So, it鈥檚 a good way to get value from that waste, instead of it just going into landfills and creating all kinds of carbon emissions.鈥
In addition to the sustainability aspect, Gensure is also investigating how he can control or change what kinds of oils the cells can create, by engineering the cells.聽
鈥淭he ability to control the composition of the oil is much more difficult with conventional agricultural systems, so that鈥檚 another long term aspect Aidan is working on,鈥 Blenner said. 鈥淲e really want to find how we can use lower value inputs that can be converted into things we want, as well as how we can engineer them to perform better in the process.鈥澛
Although food science and engineering may seem like an odd combination to the outside observer, these disciplines are actually ideal for many who are entering the food science research sector.聽
鈥淭here is a lot of engineering in food science and a lot of food science in engineering,鈥 Blenner said.聽
Gensure feels the same, citing that having a food science background has influenced his perspective on engineering as a whole.聽
鈥淭hrough my food science education, I鈥檝e learned how all of these different systems work together and how they all affect each other,鈥 Gensure said. 鈥淵ou really do have to work from farm to table, to improve sustainability and to make sure that we can build a better planet.鈥
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