by Liz Gyekye (Biofuels International) Large-scale seaweed farms could become an important source for biofuels production in the UK, a new report by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) suggest.
The government department recently unveiled a report entitled, Seaweed in the UK and abroad – status, products, limitations, gaps and Cefas role.
In the report, Defra stated that seaweed could be important because its aquaculture does not compete for land and freshwater with either food or non-food crops. Furthermore, seaweeds have high productivity, fast growth rates and high polysaccharide content; all important qualities for biomass for biofuels.
Defra also said that macroalgae could also represent a significant sink for anthropogenic CO2 (“Blue Carbon”), and cultivation and the harvesting of seaweeds could play an important role in carbon sequestration and reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.
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In the UK, harvesting of wild seaweeds for food, feed and fertilisers has been carried out for centuries, however seaweed farming does not have a long history.
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Rose (Craig Rose, managing director of the specialist firm Seaweed and Co.) explained: “The biofuels industry will continue to evolve with the low volume, high value industries. Seaweed fits into all of them. However, seaweed used for biofuels production is still a long way away, perhaps 5-10 years away.
“Nevertheless, this is definitely going to happen in the future. Projects are happening but they are very much at research stage.” READ MORE and MORE (Cefas) and MORE (Daily Mail)