THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Volume XIV, Issue # 18, January 29, 2012
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Government Committed to & Acting in Accord with Conservative Principles
Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity
WILL SEAWEED BE THE BIOFUEL SOLUTION?
By Dennis T. Avery
A NEW BIOTECH DISCOVERY: ENABLING FUEL ALCOHOL TO BE MADE FROM A COMMON VARIETY OF BROWN SEAWEED, KOMBU -- BY-PASSING THE
BIGGEST PROBLEM WITH THE PRODUCTION & USE OF CORN ETHANOL & BIODIESEL, THE WORLD'S SHORTAGE OF CROPLAND -- USE OF GENETICALLY ENGINEERED
BACTERIA TO PRODUCE KOMBU ETHANOL -- THE ENVIRONMENTALIST MOVEMENT & THE PRODUCTION & USE OF BOMBU ETHANOL
FULL STORY:
Researchers may have broken the biofuel barrier. A new biotech discovery enables ethanol to be made from a common variety of brown seaweed. This would
by-pass the biggest problem with corn ethanol and biodiesel — the world’s shortage of cropland. The new ethanol process uses the familiar E coli bacterium
working on kombu, a variety of edible brown kelp, which is common in the world’s seas and oceans. It has been grown and harvested commercially by such
countries as China, Japan, and Korea for hundreds of years. If you like sushi, it is the brown wrapping on your favorites.
The new process can turn a mixture of kombu and water, with the E. coli added, into a solution of about 5 percent ethanol in two days. Distill the ethanol from
the water; put the water back into the ocean and “Voila”! Better yet, this happens at low temperatures, between 25 and 30 degrees Celsius. Thus the ethanol can
be produced without the use of additional costly energy — a big advantage over the current efforts to produce cost-effective ethanol from algae.
An analysis by the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory suggests that the U.S.A. could supply one percent of its annual gasoline needs by growing the
brown seaweed for harvest on less than one percent of its territorial waters.
The world already grows and harvests more than 15 million metric tons of kombu and other seaweeds for direct human consumption. There seems no reason
why large additional amounts of the seaweed could not be harvested for ethanol without driving up the costs of other foods. Corn ethanol competes directly for
land with food and feed, thereby increasing food costs to consumers, especially for meat, milk, and eggs.
The seaweed catch? The new ethanol depends on genetically engineered bacteria. The process has been developed by Bio Architecture Lab, Inc. (BAL) and the
University of Washington in Seattle. They modified the common E. coli bacterium to turn the sugars in edible kelp into ethanol. The research has just been
reported in the January 20, 2012, issue of the journal Science. “The form of sugar inside the seaweed is very exotic,” says Yashuo Yoshikuni, one of the
developers. “There is no industrial microbe to break down the alginate [in the seaweed] and convert it into fuels and chemical compounds.”
How badly does the environmentalist movement want to get rid of fossil fuels? Enough to accept the biotech ethanol solution? At this moment, the world’s
acceptance of other renewable fuels is plummeting, due to their high costs, compared to coal and natural gas. Meanwhile, the new horizontal drilling and fracking
processes have suddenly made long-known and abundant shale petroleum reserves far more cost-effective. The claims that fracking will pollute drinking water
are not holding up, since the petroleum-drilling is thousands of feet further down in the soil profile than the well-drilling.
The eco-movement has long demanded “natural” food production. Bio-tech food production has been successfully banned in many Third World countries,
because of the pressure from First World environmentalist ideologues and activists. But would that apply to kelp ethanol vats? The kelp for biofuel can be grown
in Puget Sound, but kelp farms have been rejected by landowners and fisherman.
On the other hand, if kombu ethanol can be produced so readily, other nations have at least as much seawater in their surroundings as the “rich” in North
America and Europe. This means that all countries having access to seawater could make energy and support their own populations, while expanding their
economies into the Twenty-first Century.
Remember, of course, none of this will much reduce our dependency on oil. One percent of our territorial waters for one percent of our fuel means it will only be
useful in fulfilling the congressional mandate and perhaps rescue us from corn ethanol.
LINKS TO RELATED TOPICS:
Political Environmentalism Versus Human Progress & Prosperity:
Policy Issues Relating to Energy, Environment,
& Natural Resources
Political Economy -- Philosophies, Systems, & Public Policies:
Government, the Economy, & Economic Prosperity
Dennis T. Avery, a senior fellow for the Hudson Institute in Washington, D.C., is an environmental economist. He was formerly a senior analyst for the U.S.
Department of State. He is co-author, with S. Fred Singer, of Unstoppable Global Warming Every 1500 Years. Readers may write to him at P.O. Box 202,
Churchville, Virginia, 2442; send him email at cgfi@hughes.net; or visit us at www.cgfi.org
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THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
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Conservative Government Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity