Israel firm to make fuel from seaweed
Wednesday, 14 March 2007, 17:30 IST
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Jerusalem: Israeli firm Seambiotic Ltd. announced recently a new technology to produce fuel from seaweed cultivated by carbon dioxide emissions from power plants, local daily Ha'aretz reported. According to the report, the polluting gas, one of the main contributors to global warming, passes through a filtration process and enters a pool, where it feeds microscopic seaweed. The seaweed is used to produce fuel. The seaweed, which is used to produce fuel, is found in the Mediterranean in small concentrations, but the carbon dioxide allows it to grow in the pools at a concentration of one million times greater. The scientists who developed this technology said that it is possible to produce a litre of fuel for every 5 kg of seaweed and the use of carbon dioxide can also reduce the cost of production radically. "In the scientific literature, it is stated that it is impossible to grow seaweed through the use of carbon dioxide from power plants, because of the large quantities of pollutants released from the smokestacks," director of Seambiotic Amnon Bachar was quoted by Ha'aretz as saying. "But it appears that whoever wrote that does not know how to grow seaweed. We have found that seaweed can grow on the basis of the carbon dioxide being emitted from power plants. We get the carbon dioxide for free, and the power plant produces less pollution," he said. The technology was developed in the experimental farm set up by Seambiotic Ltd. three years ago in the compound of the Ashkelon power plant, with the support of the Israel Electric Corporation. Last week, the company filed a technology patent in the US.
Source: IANS
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