Seaweed may be the Best Crop to Produce Biofuel

Friday, 02 January 2009 06:50

For many years seaweed has been considered as an alternative to produce Biofuel instead of corn or sugar cane.

Recently a group of researchers from Mitsubishi and The University of Marine Science and Technology in Japan have released a proposal regarding a massive “seaweed farm.” The proposed project will occupy roughly 10 000 km² and it is estimated that it will produce at least 20 million kilolitres of biofuel a year which is equal to one third of Japan’s fuel consumption.

According to the proposal there will be floating bio-reactors above the farms that will break down the seaweeds into sugars. They would then prepare the broken down seaweed into bio-ethanol after which it would be shipped to the mainland using tankers.

The main reasons for using seaweed to produce biofuel instead of sugar cane or corn are that seaweed does not need soil, fertilisers or fresh water to grow and can be grown in its natural habitat. It grows ten times faster than sugar cane and produces 5000 gallons of biofuel per acre whereas corn yields only 18 and soybeans produce only 48. Food prices will not rise due to more land being used to produce biofuels. As well as this researchers claim that it will “clean” the Sea of Japan by removing some of the excess salts that flow into the sea from the mainland.

More recent news is that researchers in the United Kingdom are also looking into the possibility of using seaweed to produce biofuel. Prof. Mike Cowling a science and research manager at Crown Estate said that given Scotland’s rugged coastline and relatively clean seas it would be foolish not to pursue the matter. However, he also mentioned that while seaweed could play an “important role” in green energy they would have to research the matter further to establish the practicalities’

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