Project Launches To Pair Offshore Wind With Sustainable Food Production
Note that it’s a little over a fortnight to April Fool’s Day!
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on offshoreWIND.biz.
This is the sub-heading.
Win@Sea, a new collaboration between Vattenfall and Danish universities and companies, will investigate how to produce offshore wind power and sustainable food – all while improving the marine environment and biodiversity in the same marine area.
This is the first paragraph.
The partners will look into whether an offshore wind farm could simultaneously produce fossil-free electricity and sustainable food while also contributing positively to biodiversity in the same area.
But this report is not alone, in using the sea as a farm.
- Amazon Finances First-Ever Commercial-Scale Seaweed Farm Located Between Offshore Wind Turbines
- Brown Seaweed Could Remove 550 Million Tons Of Carbon
- The Plans For Giant Seaweed Farms In European Waters
- Oysters Get New Home At Eneco Luchterduinen Offshore Wind Farm
It sounds to me like a case of great minds thinking alike.
Amazon Finances First-Ever Commercial-Scale Seaweed Farm Located Between Offshore Wind Turbines
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on offshoreWIND.biz.
This is the sub-heading.
Multinational technology company Amazon is funding the world’s first commercial-scale seaweed farm located between offshore wind turbines
This paragraph details the project.
The North Sea Farm 1 will be located in a wind farm off the coast of the Netherlands, designed to test and improve methods of seaweed farming, while researching the potential of seaweed to sequester carbon.
Seaweed is all the rage at the moment, since Notpla won Prince William’s Earthshot Prize, with their packaging made from seaweed.
It sounds to me, that as Amazon probably create more need for packaging, than any company in the world, there could be an almighty coming together, which will create a lot of environmentally-friendly ideas.
Brown Seaweed Could Remove 550 Million Tons Of Carbon
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on the Carbon Herald.
This may seem like a story that has arrived a few months early.
But the report does come from the respect Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology.
The research is detailed on this page on their web site, which is entitled Slime For The Climate, Delivered By Brown Algae.
It is introduced by this sub-heading.
In form of fucoidan, brown algae could remove up to 550 million tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere every year.
Which is followed by this paragraph.
Brown algae take up large amounts of carbon dioxide from the air and release parts of the carbon contained therein back into the environment in mucous form. This mucus is hard to break down for other ocean inhabitants, thus the carbon is removed from the atmosphere for a long time, as researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology in Bremen now show. They reveal that the algal mucus called fucoidan is particularly responsible for this carbon removal and estimate that brown algae could thus remove up to 550 million tons of carbon dioxide from the air every year – almost the amount of Germany’s entire annual greenhouse gas emissions.
Note that fucoidan has a Wikipedia entry.
The page says this about brown algae.
Brown algae are true wonder plants when it comes to absorbing carbon dioxide from the air.
It does seem to me that the Germans are on to something.
The Plans For Giant Seaweed Farms In European Waters
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on the BBC.
The article describes how the Dutch are developing the growing and harvesting of seaweed.
This is all fascinating stuff and reminds me of reading of a company called Alginate Industries in the Meccano Magazine in the 1950s.
I can’t find much about the company, except that they were taken over by Merck & Co in 1979.
The Wikipedia entry for alginic acid, gives this information on alginates.
Alginates are refined from brown seaweeds. Throughout the world, many of the Phaeophyceae class brown seaweeds are harvested to be processed and converted into sodium alginate. Sodium alginate is used in many industries including food, animal food, fertilisers, textile printing, and pharmaceuticals. Dental impression material uses alginate as its means of gelling. Food grade alginate is an approved ingredient in processed and manufactured foods.
I remember the Meccano Magazine saying that alginates were an important food additive and UK production came from the North of Scotland.
This page on the Secret Scotland wiki gives details of current alginate production in Scotland.
Has Wikipedia replaced the Meccano Magazine, as a source of information for scientifically-inquisitive children?
The Anonymous Widower 