Seaweed and algae for biofuel

SEAWEED FARMING REQUIRES NO FERTILIZERS, FOREST CLEARING, WATER IRRIGATION, OR HEAVY USE OF FUEL-BURNING MACHINERY - AND, AS A RESULT, HAS A NEGATIVE CARBON FOOTPRINT.

Expanding seaweed aquaculture can help produce renewable biofuels and food for livestock while absorbing carbon and reducing ocean acidification. Using 3% of the ocean for seaweed could offset 15% of annual greenhouse gas emissions.

Source: www.theatlantic.com. World Bank. Seaweed Sustainability: food and non-food applications (2015) Elsevier. Image Source: Wikimedia Commons. Edible Seaweed. | map illustration sources: kelp - Robert S. Steneck, Michael H. Graham et al: Kelp forest ecosystems... : Environmental Conservation 29 (4) | micro-algae biofuel - Correa et al. Global mapping of cost-effective microalgal biofuel production areas with minimal environmental impact. GCB Bioenergy. 2019. |potential seaweed farms drawn in offshore oil fields identified in Petroleum Dataset V1.1.1, The Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO) | Lujala, Päivi; Jan Ketil Rød & Nadia Thieme, 2007. ‘Fighting over Oil: Introducing A New Dataset’, Conflict Management and Peace Science 24(3)

"SEAWEED COULD SAVE THE OCEANS FROM BECOMING TOO ACIDIC." - Tim Flannery

"One study asserted that Seaweed farming could produce enough biomethane to replace all of today’s needs in fossil fuel energy, while removing roughly 100% of annual green house gas emissions."

Source: “Seaweed could save the worlds ocean’s from becoming too acidic” Tim Flannery, Quartz News

BEST PRACTICES: GREEN WAVE

In Bren Smith’s 3-D ocean farms “seaweed, mussels and scallops hang from floating ropes. Oysters grow in cages below... and cages of clams hang beneath them... [the] Kelp soaks up five times as much carbon as land-based plants while oysters filter 50 gallons of water a day.... [these farms can produce] 30 times more biofuel than soybeans and five times more biofuel than corn – without polluting the food chain.”

Source: “GreenWave ocean farming model scoops $100,000 sustainability prize” The Guardian. Image: NPS, Glacier National Park. public domain.