Japan may run its cars on seaweed

A THIRD OF Japanese cars could run on biofuel made from cultivating seaweed on a number of 10,000 square metre plots of ocean, according to boffins quoted on nikkei.net.

The idea, according to the Tokyo University of Marine Science and Tech, is to grow sargassum fulvellum in the Yamatotai shoal which is 30,000 kilometres wide.

That, reckon the boffins there, is capable of generating 20 kilolitres of bio-ethanol for each 10,000 square metres of cultivated seaweed on nets.

Even if the seaweed idea doesn't work, other boffins reckon they could use high yield rice, unsuitable for human consumption, as a source for bio-fuel. µ

L'INQ
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