Less drain on freshwater supplies with seawater fuel discovery

[Judi Lynn]

Date:
August 21, 2018
Source:
University of Nottingham
Summary:
Researchers have found that seawater can replace freshwater to produce the sustainable fuel Bioethanol, reducing the need to drain precious resources.

Researchers have found that seawater can replace freshwater to produce the sustainable fuel Bioethanol, reducing the need to drain precious resources.

The study -- 'The establishment of a marine focused biorefinery for bioethanol production using seawater and a novel marine yeast strain' -- has been published in Scientific Reports and was carried out by researchers at the University of Nottingham. Their results showed that seawater can be used in Bioethanol production along with a new strain of marine based yeast.

Dr Abdelrahman Zaky, a microbiologist in the School of Biosciences, conducted his research using seawater from the Lincolnshire coast and took his marine yeast samples from various locations in the UK, US and Egypt. He put them through the fermentation process in the laboratories in Bioenergy and Brewing Science Building at the University's Sutton Bonington campus.

Dr Zaky said: "Current fermentation technologies mainly use edible crops and freshwater for the production of bioethanol. With an ever growing population and demand for biofuels and other bio-based produces, there are concerns over the use of the limited freshwater and food crops resources for non-nutritional activities. Also, freshwater has a high price tag in countries where it is available, pushing up the price of production."

More:
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/08/180821125451.htm

[brush]

1. Bioethanol? Is there a carbon footprint?

[mopinko]

3. sounds like it would have to be a lot lower than current methods.

not using biomass/food crops would lower it considerably. agriculture has an enormous carbon footprint. and a new source of fresh water is huge, imho.

sounds way better.

[eppur_se_muova]

2. Yeast escapes into the wild, wreaks havoc in ocean ecosystems in 3 ... 2 ... nt