Swedish researchers from the KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Sweden are using seaweed, otherwise known as an algae, to produce environment-friendly biogas, medicine, food and plastic.

Gröndahl, one of the researchers from the Institute is leading a sea farm project for converting seaweed into eco-friendly materials.

Like Us on Facebook

He and his team said that seaweed blooms normally pose a risk to the beaches and the ecosystems as a result of their excessive production, due to eutrophication or over-fertilization.

"But, in our research, we turn the argument on its head and see algae as a resource," Gröndahl says. "We collect excess algae along the coasts and cultivate new algae out at sea. The fact is that algae can absorb nitrogen from the water as effectively as a wastewater treatment plant."

Researchers at the Institute see seaweed not as a threat to the environment anymore but as a source of nutrients and possibly a major cash crop in the future.

Although, It's not the first time seaweed is being used for farming, it's the first to be used for the production of biogas and medicine. Seaweed farming began in Japan in the 16^th century and it's popular in many Asian cultures such as in Korea and China.

In Sweden, researchers are now collecting the seaweed along the coast of the city of Trelleborg located south of the country. The city estimated that the amount of algae on its beaches equals the energy from 2.6 million liters of diesel fuel.

The research aims to convert seaweed from an environmental problem to the future of farming. It may shift the world's attention from land production to aqua production.

Man is currently using forty percent of land in the world for production, while using only 1 percent of the seas' ecosystems.

TagsSeaweed, algae, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden, Eco-friendly, Environment