C-Cause selected by SPRIN-D for ‘Carbon-to-Value’ challenge

In Germany, SPRIN-D announced their selection of C-Cause, a project partnership led by The Alfred Wegener Institute, Carbonwave, GEOMAR and Seafields, as one of five projects chosen for their ‘Carbon-to-Value’ challenge. SPRIN-D (Federal Agency for Disruptive Innovation) is funded by the German Federal Government and tasked with financially supporting break-through ideas. The team is supported by BASF to help provide bio-based feedstocks for use in chemical production processes.

C-Cause (Chemical Carbon Utilization through Sargassum Economy) looks to reshape humanity’s carbon feedstock supply chain, by transforming Atlantic and Caribbean Sargassum (which offers very high carbon sequestration efficiency compared to other types of biomass) into ethanol, which can be used to produce long-lived engineering plastics that store the carbon for decades. Currently, biological feedstocks for ethanol include corn, sugar cane, and wood – all of which compete with food systems and other industries for land and resources, while also contributing to deforestation.

The project has two goals: developing a proof of concept for open ocean Sargassum aquafarms, and optimizing pathways to turn Sargassum biomass into ethanol for engineered plastics that will store CO2 long-term.