Biofuel from the oceans
Date: 22.1.2009
Almost all commercially produced **liquid biofuels** come from either sugary crops like sugar beet or cane, or starchy ones like potatoes or corn. But every acre used to cultivate those crops uses one that could grow food - potentially causing food shortages and pushing up prices.
Using **woody material** instead of crops could sidestep this to some extent by using biomass from more unproductive land. And producing biofuels from freshwater algae cultivated in outdoor ponds or tanks could also use land unsuitable for agriculture. But neither approach has been made commercially available.
Now a group at the Korea Institute of Technology in South Korea has developed a way to use **marine algae** or seaweed, to produce bioethanol and avoid taking up land altogether.
More "checkbiotech":[ http://bioenergy.checkbiotech.org/news/invention_biofuel_oceans]
