The American industry has long dallied with the idea of using microalgae to produce the alternative fuel ethanol, but now a new approach has been proposed. The next stop in our quest to find the best and most efficient alternative fuel: Seaweed, a macroalgae.

Despite its promise as an alternative fuel source, seaweed is not really on the radar in the United States.  The reason for this is simply because it isn’t a staple American crop. But now, it seems that this out of sight, out of mind outlook on seaweed has come to an end.

Researchers at E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Co. along with Seattle’s Bio Architecture Lab have been awarded $9 million from the Department of Energy to study the use of seaweed as a raw material for the production of the advanced biofuel, biobutanol.

The researchers farm their own seaweed at a location close to the plant to decrease the negative environmental impact of their seaweed farm.

Since most research focuses on microalgae as an ethanol source, a large part of this effort has been in justifying seaweed as a source of alternative energy instead of microalgae. The research team does not view seaweed as a better source of alternative energy than microalgae, simply an alternative source. Though, despite their “love all our children equally” stance, it is clear that the team is attempting to make seaweed and biobutanol a competitive alternative to petroleum.

For competitive reasons, the companies have yet to give an official statement on how much biobutanol per unit of seaweed they intend to produce. However, E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Co. has estimated that if seaweed was grown in 2.5 percent of America’s continental shelf coastline approximately 6.8 billion gallons of fuel could be produced per annum.

The researchers intend to take their risky seaweed R&D project and put it to the test over the next few years while their funding lasts. There are still many obstacles to overcome as the team attempts to take their ideas from the drawing board, and implement a large-scale biobutanol production plant. Only time will tell whether seaweed will be the focus of next wave of alternative energy projects.

Discussion question: What problems might the seaweed effort face? What problems arise with algae and other alternative fuel efforts?

News Article link: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=seaweed-algae-du-pont-feedstock-biobutanol-biofuel

Other articles of interest: http://www.nytimes.com/gwire/2009/11/25/25greenwire-duponts-unique-seaweed-venture-nets-doe-cash-97651.html