Japanese Scientists Look into Seaweed as Potential Bioethanol Feedstock

As demand for biofuels increases, the available land space for cultivating biofuel crops may become a problem for land resource-limited countries like Japan. This is one of the reasons why Japanese scientists are now looking to the sea for cultivating novel biofuel feedstocks.  The Tokyo University of Marine Science and Technology, together with Mitsubishi Research Institute and other Japanese companies have announced an ambitious project for the cultivation of seaweed for ethanol production. 

A 10,000 square kilometer seaweed farm is planned off the Sea of Japan, in a shallow fishing area called Yamatotai. In the proposal, fast-growing sargasso seaweeds will be cultivated in giant nets laid out in the cultivation area.  Floating bioreactors will process the seaweeds into fermentable sugars for subsequent ethanol fermentation using specialized enzymes.  Ethanol fermentation is also envisioned to be done at sea.  Transport of the ethanol to land will be done by tankers. The Japanese scientists estimate that the 10,000 square kilometre seaweed farm can produce about 20 million kiloliters (5.3 billion gallons) of ethanol per year.  The search for enzymes that can break down the organic polymers in the algae into fermentable sugars is one of the key areas of study.  Seaweed is composed of polysaccharides, fucoidin and alginic acid.  Although fucoidan-degrading enzymes are available, there is reportedly none so far for the degradation of alginic acid.  Molecular biology techniques for the development of alginic-acid degrading enzymes are being considered. 

Related Links:
Information about fucoidan and alginic acid from Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fucoidan
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alginic_acid