In a scenario where the world’s alternative energy and biofuel production is mainly challenged by the risk of unintended land usage, we almost forget the status of smaller countires, who can never think biofuels due to their land demands. Small island and peninsula countries do not have the land to grow biofuel crops, such as corn or Jatropha. In such a scenario, Seaweed as a feedstock for biofuel production could be an option for smaller countries, especially islands that do not have the land to grow crops.
Yong-Su Jin, assistant professor of microbial genomics and faculty member of Institute for Genomic Biology at the University of Illinois has been conducting research in this area since 2007 and he strongly feels that seaweed biofuel can significantly help smaller countries. His research team has identified that when seaweed goes through hydrolysis, to produce ethanol, it forms galactose and this galactose must go through a process called yeast fermentation before it can become ethanol.
But again any promising alternative would have its own odds stacked up against it and sea weed based fuel is no exception here. There would surely be some ecological concerns over using seaweed, since seaweed is mainly used by fish and other aquatic species as food. Moreover, the weather conditions at sea could also hamper harvesting the sea weed. But since the amount of sea weed and other biomass in ocean is very vast, one could certainly feel that experimenting on these untapped recourses could be done at least till an ecological threat is at vicinity in oceans.
