Seaweed Could "Fuel" Future

An Interesting article appeared on the BBC news website this morning.

Scientists want to see pilot farms and research into the most energy-rich types of seaweed so they can assess Scotland's marine biomass potential.

The report was carried out by the Scottish Association for Marine Science for The Crown Estate and makes recommendations on using biomass for heating and fuel while avoiding the use of valuable agricultural land.

Prof Mike Cowling, science and research manager at The Crown Estate, said: "Given Scotland's rugged western coastline and island groups, and relatively clean seas, it is sensible to examine the farming of seaweeds and sustainable harvesting of natural supplies as a source of energy, to heat our homes and fuel our vehicles.

Extracting energy from seaweed is a particularly efficient and reliable method of producing green energy

Prof Cowling went on to say "Heating and transport make up around three quarters of our energy use so it's vital that we find new ways of meeting that demand.
"Extracting energy from seaweed is a particularly efficient and reliable method of producing green energy, and the growing of seaweed could have positive impact on local marine biodiversity."

One key advantage of using seaweed is that it avoids the problems associated with agricultural crop biofuels such as pressure on arable land and fresh water.

Dundee University professor of microbiology Geoffrey Codd has also been promoting the idea of using seaweed and other algae as fuel.

He feels the practice could help revive traditional UK industries such as harvesting seaweed and create viable and sustainable biofuel sources.

This follows an article published in July, also on the same website, in which Professor Codd says that using algae to produce biofuels would not compete for land use with food production.

He goes on the say "Algae can also grow better than the best land crops - producing a yield that can be five to 10 times higher".

They already play an important role in removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and they produce a number of useful by-products.

Prof Codd said: "It [the algae] was around long before terrestrial crop plants appeared on the Earth - ranging from the single-celled plankton which grow in our seas, oceans and freshwaters, to the seaweeds on our shores.

"Algae can also grow in some of the harshest environments on Earth - in salt lakes and in desert environments where food crop plant production is not practised or even possible.

"Clearly there is no single fix in the search for sustainable biofuels and there are no quick fixes. However, algae are up there as viable and sustainable biofuel sources.
"We should give more attention to this in the current assessment of the future of biofuel production."

The Crown Estate owns almost all of the seabed out to 12 nautical miles and has rights on energy development out to 200 nautical miles.

It recently opened up the Pentland Firth seabed for leasing to developers, with interest shown in creating a massive underwater tidal farm.


Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/scotland/7690973.stm

Published: 2008/10/26 06:00:24 GMT

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