Gin from peas, infinite hoodie, plant shoe, light and heat stabilizers for agricultural plastics, slimy sea lettuce for biofuels, and more: The Digest’s Top 10 Innovations for the week of July 24th

#7 Slimy sea lettuce isn’t so bad after all – one of the easiest to break down for biofuels

In Jersey, a small island in the English Channel that has dealt with an annual green sea lettuce in St. Aubin’s Bay is now looking at taking the bothersome slime in a different light and as a potential feedstock for locally produced biofuels.

According to Jersey Evening Post, a government report published on seaweed harvesting and aquaculture highlighted that the ulva species, which is usually abundant in Jersey each summer, is one of the best candidates for producing renewable biofuels that are developed from plants. It adds that several species that grow in Jersey could be used to develop biofuels, most notably the now infamous sea lettuce, which, due to its high levels of sugar, could be used to produce both liquid bioethanol and biogas. The report says that trials in Japan have discovered that sea lettuce is one of the easiest seaweeds to break down to produce biofuels, and this can be done by storing it at a temperature of 4°C for a month.
More on the story, here.