5 square km seaweed-to-energy farm for India?

In India, the Central Salt and Marine Chemical Research Institute (CSMCRI) announced that it will increase cultivation of seaweed for ethanol production to a 5-10 square kilometre energy farm.

CSMCRI director Dr Pushpito Ghosh told reporters that “the sap derived from seaweed will help raise the nation’s sugarcane yield by 10 to 30 per cent, secondly the seaweed bio-mass will be a source for ethanol.” CSMCRI also said it was working on the scale-up of technology to convert seaweed biomass to ethanol; the researchers are using Kappahycus alvarezi as their macroalgae strain of choice. “On filtering fresh seaweed crush we get sap, which is a bio-fertiliser,” Ghosh explained. “The residue solid contains polysaccharides, which is then converted into sugar and fermented to produce ethanol.”