Caribbean scientists turn harmful seaweed into car fuel

When massive amounts of invasive seaweed washed up on Caribbean shores in 2011, locals were left baffled.

Soon, unsightly mounds of seaweed washed up from the Sargasso Sea and blanketed the region's shores. Pollution combined with warmer waters led to a spike in seaweed numbers. As the seaweed decomposed, it also emitted a particularly unpleasant odor.

'Local tourism is badly hit by seaweed, with hotels spending a lot of money to deal with it,' added Legena Henry at the University of the West Indies (Barbados). 'It's a crisis.'

Seaweed covers a beach. (Photo: El País).

Seaweed not only affects the tourism industry, it also threatens human health through the hydrogen sulphide gas it releases as it decomposes. In addition, many local species are also affected by seaweed on the shore.

Tackling the giant seaweed is a difficult task for small tourist islands with limited resources. In 2018, then-Prime Minister of Barbados Mia Mottley declared the seaweed a national emergency.

But now a pioneering group of Caribbean scientists and environmentalists hope to tackle the problem by turning the troublesome seaweed into a profitable biofuel. They recently unveiled a vehicle powered by compressed natural gas. The fuel, created at the University of the West Indies in Barbados, also uses wastewater from a winery, as well as a local sheep subspecies that is a major anaerobic biofuel.

The team claims that any type of car can be converted to use this biogas thanks to a simple and inexpensive assembly process that takes about 4 hours. The total cost is expected to be around 2,500 USD.

The researchers initially planned to use sugarcane to create biofuel to help Barbados reach its zero-emissions target. However, project founder Legena Henry said that although Barbados is still one of the few islands that still grows sugarcane, the amount is unlikely to be enough for the team's goals.

Meanwhile, seaweed is never in short supply. One of Henry's students at the University of the West Indies, Brittney McKenzie, proposed the idea of ​​using seaweed as biofuel.

Brittney then took on the task of collecting seaweed from the beach and setting up a mini bioreactor to conduct initial research. 'In just two weeks, we got pretty good results,' Brittney said.

The team has filed intellectual property for their formula and presented the project to potential investors on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York in 2019. Several entities have funded their project, including the US non-profit Blue Chip Foundation with $100,000.

The project is also an example of how Caribbean countries are working to shape their own environmental future.