Pull up to the pump and fill ’er up with seaweed. A study by a University of Victoria graduate student suggests that ethanol from seaweed could be much more environmentally friendly than ethanol from corn.
Aaron Philippsen says seaweed farms along the B.C. coast could produce 1.3 billion litres of ethanol, more than enough to add to the 4.5 billion litres of gasoline and 2.2 billion litres of diesel British Columbians use in a year.
Saccharina latissima, a brown seaweed, is better for our carbon footprint because it produces only 10 grams of carbon per megajoule of energy. That compares to 90 grams for gasoline and 50 to 75 grams for corn-based ethanol.
Philippsen recommends creating seaweed farms along our sheltered coast where the product could be harvested.
It’s a tempting idea, especially when we consider that corn is better used to feed people than cars.
But harvesting seaweed from a rocky shore has to be more expensive than running a combine through a field of corn. Corn, a crop that humans have cultivated for centuries, is grown in neatly laid out fields that are relatively easy to look after. Seaweed grows on shorelines where machines don’t work well.
And what happens to the delicate ecosystem of the coastline if we strip off the seaweed?
It’s an interesting idea, but one that merits a closer, careful look.
