Mexican researcher finds key to producing biogas from macroalgae plaguing Caribbean

In Mexico, falling a recent call by a researcher at one Mexican university to find ways to create value out of the sargassum algae that are polluting the Caribbean and Mexican coasts, a researcher at the Renewable Energy Unit under of the Center for Scientific Research of Yucatán announced he had been working to use the plant as feedstock for biogas for more than a year. As the plant can have up to 17% lignin, it can be a challenging feedstock for biogas, but the researcher said with the fungus Trametes hirsute breaks down the lignin so it can be processed.