Researchers tout seaweed, algae grown on offshore farms near Japan, Ireland, Argentina as biofuel feedstock

Seaweed, in the form of sargassum raised on the seabed floor as a biofuel feedstock, was originally the subject of a 3860 square mile underwater biofuel farm proposed last year for the Yamotai seabed off the coast of Japan. NEC Toshiba, Mitsubishi Electric, IHI, Sumitomo Electric, Shimizu, Toa, Kanto Natural Gas Development, and the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology had announced participation last summer.

Now, an Australian researcher presenting at the International Society for Applied Phycology has raised the prospect of cultivating sea-based algae and brown seaweeds off the coast of Ireland as biofuel feedstock. Plus Argentina’s  Oil Fox and Biocombustibles de Chubut is pursuing the production of biodiesel from seaweed based on a $60 million investment from Switzerland.

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