We Now Have A Whole New Way To Make Sustainable Fuels - Growing Seaweed

One day, we will have kilometers of seaweed farm under the ocean tended for by submarine drones. The purpose of this odd project is to turn seaweed into fuels and it is carried out by Marine BioEnergy, a startup with funding from the US’s government.

So far, the US has had 5% of its total energy coming from wood, corn, and other biomass, which can also absorb carbon dioxide when they grow. Experts hope that this form of energy making continue to grow as it will solve the fueling problem of air planes and other forms of transportation that we can hardly go electrical.

While corn makes a decent choice for making biofuels, they require fertilizer, land, and water to grow, which raise other problems related to pollution. This is why scientists turn to seaweed. It needs none of these above resource and it can help us tapping into the vast oceans, a region we have been neglecting for years.

Once the seaweed is harvested, they can be turned into several forms of energy, including ethanol and biogas.

To harness the potential of seaweed, we still need to develop technologies enabling us to farm them far out in the ocean, where natural conditions can be hard for humans to live and work.

This problem can be tackled by a system called MARINER, which delivers the whole package of cultivating, harvesting, transporting, breeding, and more. The system has small underwater drones with sensors to identify any potential damage or track growth.

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