Take biofuel crops off the land and grow them at sea

News Type: Other — Seeded on Fri Jun 6, 2008 10:54 AM EDT

Article Source: ENN

science, climate-change, agriculture, biofuel, mariculture

The environmental and social costs of producing biofuels on land can be avoided by farming seaweed, says Ricardo Radulovich.

Published to:

Benno Hansen's Column, All of Newsvine
Groups: Alternative Energy - Greenvine, Newsvine Science, Science And Technology, Successful Solutions
Regions: none

What's this?

Who's leading the conversation?

This visualization below allows you to see the impact that each user has on the current conversation. The top row contains the group of users who have had the most impact, the 2nd row the group of users who have had the 2nd most impact (et cetera). Users with similar impact are grouped together, and the average score of the group is shown to the left of the group. The author of the article is also shown on the left, in their corresponding group. Each user's score is based on the number of comments the user has made plus the number of votes their comments have received. The scores are calculated relative one another, so while their absolute value is not particularly important, their relative difference does indicate a larger difference in impact on the conversation.

3.8

1.0

{"commentId":1912489,"authorDomain":"roger3000"}

roger3000

Hopefully this will replace all land grown fuels. I wonder how we put this and other plans into action. We must do something real soon. Well I said the same thing in 1975, or a least I knew then that our oil time was soon to be over,at least the easy part.

{"commentId":1912489,"threadId":"281808","contentId":"1547914","authorDomain":"roger3000"}

#1 - Fri Jun 6, 2008 9:09 PM EDT

{"commentId":1912514,"authorDomain":"1stcontact"}

Pavilion

Great Seed - Clipped to Successful Solutions.

{"commentId":1912514,"threadId":"281808","contentId":"1547914","authorDomain":"1stcontact"}

2 votes

#2 - Fri Jun 6, 2008 9:13 PM EDT

{"commentId":1912592,"authorDomain":"DavidLamb"}

David Lamb

Good point, but I still don't think biofuel is the ultimate answer. Even more problematic, farming seaweed requires an incredible amount of energy (powering boats, dropping nets, drying, transport, etc). It requires .8 gallons of petroleum to create 1 gallon of ethanol (which takes a car about as far as .8 gallons of petroleum), so I'm gonna guess that it takes even more petroleum to make a gallon of seaweed biofuel. In the end, it's likely to be false economy.

{"commentId":1912592,"threadId":"281808","contentId":"1547914","authorDomain":"DavidLamb"}

1 vote

#3 - Fri Jun 6, 2008 9:24 PM EDT

{"commentId":1914728,"authorDomain":"mridulchadha"}

Mridul Chadha

I agree with David. We need to thoroughly examine this alternative and shouldn't be hasty as we were earlier. I think the key is the use of wastewater from industries and domestic outlets. Proper management of wastewater can turn it into a very useful resource.

{"commentId":1914728,"threadId":"281808","contentId":"1547914","authorDomain":"mridulchadha"}

3 votes

#3.1 - Sat Jun 7, 2008 9:25 AM EDT

{"commentId":1917931,"authorDomain":"noorkhan"}

noorkhan

Present high price of cooking oil in Asia (Thailand, Pakistan and other) is caused by the growing use of biofuels. Therefore, the need of alternate source of energy and alternate biofuels is there. I think it is good idea to use vast oceans and industrial wastes for beneficial use. But all kinds of EIA's should be carried out before large scale implementations.

{"commentId":1917931,"threadId":"281808","contentId":"1547914","authorDomain":"noorkhan"}

1 vote

#4 - Sat Jun 7, 2008 7:42 PM EDT

{"commentId":1967803,"authorDomain":"mightyblogger"}

Pacific Northwest Blogger

Why go to sea when we could have a suburban/rural energy rich Lawn Grass as a solution.

Modify the common yard grass...

The weekly lawn trimmings would go to a local processing facility (think sewage processing), and the processed fuel stays within city limits thus no long distance transportation.

Heck might even make being the neighborhood kid with the lawn mower popular again.

{"commentId":1967803,"threadId":"281808","contentId":"1547914","authorDomain":"mightyblogger"}

#5 - Sat Jun 14, 2008 3:11 PM EDT

{"commentId":1968095,"authorDomain":"benno"}

Benno Hansen

How about growing food instead of grass, cutting need for 'food miles'!? Seems a lot less risky and difficult than 'modifying' the grass strains.

{"commentId":1968095,"threadId":"281808","contentId":"1547914","authorDomain":"benno"}

#5.1 - Sat Jun 14, 2008 4:13 PM EDT

{"canLink":false,"threadId":"281808","isPrivate":false}

BENNO HANSEN

Backyard

Take biofuel crops off the land and grow them at sea

Published to:

FUN STUFF:

COMPANY STUFF:

LEGAL STUFF: