Advanced BioFuels USA

by Steven Hermans (Phyconomy)  Former CEO of Catalina Sea Ranch Phil Cruver is developing a submersible cage system to take tropical seaweed farming offshore and into a new era. In addition to providing higher yields, the cages should also protect from predators, storms and ice-ice disease.

In 2010, KZO Sea Farms developed a submersible cage for fish farming, together with collaborators at the University of New Hampshire and ISCO Industries. Later, the company secured the first permit for offshore aquaculture in U.S. Federal waters. This paved the way for its successor Catalina Sea Ranch to pioneer the cultivation of mussels and giant kelp 6 miles offshore of Huntington Beach, California.

As the founder and CEO of Catalina Sea Ranch from 2012 to 2019, Phil Cruver stood at the cradle of offshore mariculture in the US. Seeing no future in the United States due to over-regulation by NOAA and the FDA, a consulting project for the Inter-American Development Bank instead turned his attention to tropical seaweeds.

Protecting crops from predators and ice-ice disease

A chance discovery of the work of Professor Kasim of the Halu Oleo University of Sulawesi led Cruver to revisit the fish cage idea that started it all and to revive the collaboration with UNH and ISCO Industries to adapt it to seaweed aquaculture.

…

“… Using cages suspended from PVC floating rafts with multifilament netting produced a 54.9% increase in Eucheuma growth in 40 days compared to traditional long line cultivation.”

The paper also documents how bleaching and ice-ice disease, two major problems for tropical seaweed cultivators, are avoided by submerging the cages just below the surface, thus avoiding the fluctuations in surface salinity and temperatures that cause it. On top of that, the cage protects the seaweed from predators like fish and sea turtles, accounting for the higher crop yields.  READ MORE

BELIZE SEAWEED BIOFUELS RegenBiomass 2021 (RegenBiomass)

Excerpt from RegenBiomass: The initial targeted market for Belize’s seaweed industry is nutritious and sustainable seaweed as an ingredient for the Dietary & Supplement market. However, seaweed is also a targeted regenerative biomass feedstock for sustainable non-polluting biofuels. Therefore, the Company is submitting this proposal to the USTDA for conducting applied research for processing commercial sustainable seaweed feedstocks into bioethanol that would result in exporting technology and services from the United States of America (USA).

PROJECT DESCRIPTION
The Company has partnered with POET, the world’s largest ethanol producer with 33 biorefineries annually producing over 3 billion gallons of biofuels. POET has designed and built biorefineries that operate on a proprietary technology platform that provides an economic advantage in the low-margin ethanol market environment and has constructed the largest 2nd generation cellulosic ethanol plant which processes corn stover biomass.

The Company and POET are proposing to develop a 3rd generation bioethanol plant design for processing seaweed biomass farmed offshore Belize into bioethanol. This proposed project would evaluate and document the composition and unique characteristics of seaweed biomass for producing sustainable blended fuels. It would also evaluate the environmental impacts and economics of constructing seaweed biorefineries in Belize.

Low Carbon Fuel Standards (LCFS) are being adopted globally requiring fuels sold locally to steadily decline in Carbon Intensity (CI). The logistics and cost for transporting the seaweed harvest shore side for processing at Belize biorefineries are advantageous for a low CI score.

There is an immense ocean region offshore Belize that is ideal for growing seaweed not competing for arable land, precious fresh water, or requiring toxic pesticides and fertilizers. Seaweed has a unique composition as a renewable biomass feedstock due to its sugar content, lack of lignin, and its extraordinary high growth rate. Moreover, seaweed has high CO2 sequestration capability for mitigating ocean acidification and is environmentally sustainable and regenerative for curbing carbon emissions and combating climate change.   READ MORE