Seaweed can be consumed as well as used to flavor soup and sushi. It might also be useful for biodegradable goods, apparel, cosmetics, and biofuels. An Indian company is currently revolutionizing ocean aquaculture. A sizable sea combine harvester that the business has built will make collecting crops grown in marine farming much simpler.
Using nets or ropes suspended in the ocean, seaweed is frequently cultivated in the water. However, it is now possible to produce it in the sea on a large scale thanks to modern technologies. This technology will be as successful as tractors, according to a CNN story. The 2010-founded Sea6 Energy company seeks to mechanize marine farming in the same manner that tractors transformed agriculture. It is claimed that the sea combine harvester will revolutionize marine farming. Using an automated catamaran, it collects seaweed and replants it in the water.
Mechanism behind it
The machine moves back and forth between lines of seaweed, harvesting fully developed plants and replacing them with newly seeded lines. This machine’s prototype is currently in use in the business seaweed farm off the coast of Indonesia. Seaweed cultivation has a long history in Southeast Asian nations. The seaweed fragments are tied together with ropes by the people before being sent to the sea. The crop is physically harvested when it is time to harvest it. The Sea6 Energy company claims that as technology develops and the market grows, the company will introduce comparable Sea Combines to several countries, including India.
Growth of the seaweed industry
The global seaweed market doubled in size between 2005 and 2015, producing 33 million metric tonnes in 2018. The production process is costly and labor-intensive, which has restricted market growth. Because seaweed is so expensive, it can only be produced in a few places. The company contends that sea combine harvesters would reduce costs, making seaweeds more accessible and enabling their use in more places. The growing population of the world will benefit from marine farming by receiving food and other necessities.
Fuel and food
The Sea Combine, which has so far garnered $20 million in the capital, now produces limited amounts of things like animal feed and agricultural fertilizer using the seaweed that the machine harvests. The business will take the next step by extending its line of products made from seaweed, starting with bioplastics, which it plans to start making within the next three years.
Over the last ten years, the EU has funded research into seaweed as a biodegradable alternative to plastic. The London-based business Notpla has already employed seaweed to make environmentally friendly sauce and beverage containers. To replace paper and plastic bags, Sea6 Energy is in the early phases of manufacturing its biodegradable film. But the company’s most audacious goal is to turn seaweed into biofuel and lessen India’s reliance on crude oil.
While there is still a long way to go before it becomes commercially viable, a scientific study conducted by the company demonstrates that it would be theoretically possible. They would need hectares and hectares [of seaweed] to create a few liters of oil. They would also have to concentrate on places where seaweed can immediately improve things.
Bioplastics could aid in decarbonization, seaweed-enriched cattle feed has the potential to reduce bovine methane emissions due to its compounds that prevent microbes in a cow’s gut from producing the gas, and the nutrient-rich plants could aid in feeding the world’s expanding population. In this, Sea6 Energy is not acting alone. To produce vast quantities of kelp in deep water, the Norwegian firm Seaweed Solutions created the “Seaweed Carrier,” while the Belgian company AtSeaNova created a floating sowing and harvesting device.
