The article Researchers convert washed-up seaweed into biofuels and fertiliser in Oceanographic explores work by researchers from Universities of Exeter and Bath to come up with a method to make harvesting sargassum to make chemicals and biofuels financially sustainable.
Coastal communities in Central America have been plagued by the sargassum blooms which, along with the Covid pandemic, have crippled the tourism industry. Local fisheries also suffer.
Removing the seaweed and processing it has been cost prohibitive, as the first steps include harvesting the seaweed, washing the salt water out, then drying it. Rather than removing the salt, researchers are working on a salt-based biochemical conversion. The process involves releasing sugars which feed a yeast to produce a palm oil substitute while preparing residual seaweed for hydrothermal liquefaction.
Researchers are looking to create liquid fuels, plastics and fertilizers. They are hoping seaweed biorefineries can create local solutions to the problem of sargassum. At the same time, they plan to tackle another problem associated with sargassum: plastic. The plastic debris found in sargassum will be processed along with the seaweed.
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