Energy production from marine biomass

The VE-Net group of initiatives on Biomass for energy purposes decided to test whether the fast-growing alga - sea lettuce - can become an important fuel in the future power plants and a raw material in the production of bio-ethanol for cars.

In this project, researchers from the National Environmental Research Institute - the University of Aarhus, Risø and the Danish Technological Institute in collaboration with DONG Energy have received funding from Energinet.dk to explore how to grow and harvest algae and via a fermentation process to produce bio-ethanol and biogas - or solid fuels.

Sea lettuce grows so fast that it doubles its own weight in 2-3 days and its heavy appetite for CO2 during the growth process have attracted much attention. This characteristic combined with a high carbohydrate content per solids content makes it interesting as a raw material for bio-ethanol and as an alternative for biomass production in farming or forestry.

Whether sea lettuce becomes a realistic biomass resource will depend on whether it will be possible to manufacture enough biomass with the alga to finance the costs of growing it in tank farms, of harvest processes and of drying the aqueous crop.