No. 133: Effective production of biofuel from sea algae (August 15, 2010)

A research team led by a professor of Tohoku University in Japan developed the technology to produce biofuel from sea algae effectively. Lots of efforts are being made worldwide to develop biofuel from resources other than foods to prevent food prices from going up rapidly. Utilization of resources abundant in the seacoast including sea alga invites attention as a method to solve global warming without affecting the food issues. In addition, sea algae are troublesome for power plants because they creep in the intake of coolant water. Power plants currently bear expense to dispose of them. Therefore, utilizing sea algae as fuel is like aiming to kill two birds with one stone. The research tem cut sea algae and dissolve them by mixing them with enzymes, and fermented them after adding self-developed yeast. It left the resulting product for two weeks and successfully got 200 ml ethanol from one kilogram sea algae.