Hold on, believers.Good headlines just keep coming. Ireland...

Hold on, believers.

Good headlines just keep coming.

Ireland touts seaweed as biofuel without bad image
Dublin
June 25, 2008
IRELAND could become a key player in the production of biofuel from seaweed, scientists have told a conference in the west of the country.

Seaweed has long been investigated as a potential source of bioethanol, typically made from sugar cane and corn crops, but technological barriers remain to its commercial use.

With rich seaweed resources, "Ireland is poised to become an important player in the next generation of biofuel production," said Stefan Kraan, head of the Irish Seaweed Centre at the National University of Ireland in Galway.

"Algae do not have the negative image of terrestrial biomass resources, which are said to be responsible for higher food prices, impacting on water use, biodiversity and destruction of rainforest," he said.

The annual conference of the International Society for Applied Phycology (the study of algae) is examining the economic and social aspects of using brown seaweeds for bioethanol production.

Michael Borowitzka, of Murdoch University in Western Australia, told the conference this week that compared with other bioenergy crops such as rapeseed, peanut or palm oil, there were a number of species of algae that had a higher oil content and could grow in seawater.

"These apparently very favourable properties have generated a frenzy of interest and activities in the field of energy production using algae, both microalgae and seaweeds," he said.

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