Last Friday the Vancouver Sun published an article titled, “Turning Seaweed into Biofuel” written by Agence France-Presse. This article outlines the processes for turning seaweed into a biofuel that may potentially replace or at least reduce the amount of coal and oil usage. Researchers have engineered a type of E.coli bacteria that can degrade the major sugars present in brown seaweed and have found a way to harness the energy produced. Currently, they have four aquafarming sites in Chile in hopes of taking the necessary steps in order to produce it commercially. Seaweed is also gaining attention for it is cultivated on coastlines unlike sugar and corn biofuels who use land and compete with other crops used for food.
Also, a UK/Scotland based news-website, Business7, recently reported that the Edinburgh Napier University has spun out a new company called Celtic Renewables Ltd. that intends to use the byproducts of whiskey to create a biofuel that may have a huge global impact. The whiskey industry produces 500,000 tonnes of draff each year which is used to make bio-butanol. Unlike some other biofuels, bio-butanol can replace petrol and also be blended with it as well. Consumers will thereby not need to modify their vehicles in order to use this biofuel.
articles can be found here:
http://www.vancouversun.com/business/technology/Turning+seaweed+into+biofuel/6026380/story.html