A groundbreaking Barbadian project that converts invasive sargassum seaweed into bio-compressed natural gas (bio-CNG) to power vehicles has attracted around $2 million in international funding, Barbados TODAY can confirm.
Key officials behind this game-changing innovation, led by University of the West Indies (UWI) renewable energy researcher Dr Legena Henry, the founder of Rum and Sargassum Incorporated, are mulling a large-scale bio-energy facility initially catering to 100 vehicles.
These latest developments were disclosed by the Principal of UWI Cave Hill Campus, Professor Clive Landis, who also revealed that Dr Henry is currently at the United Nations promoting the invention on the global stage.
“We would love to be able to set up a very large bio-energy plant. The way it’s looking, based on funding support that we think is likely to come in, I think we will be starting with more like 100 vehicles to convert, and then just build on it from there,” Professor Landis said in an exclusive interview with Barbados TODAY.
“[The funding] will be a mixture of governmental, private investors, and also institutional development investors. The project itself has already received about a million US dollars in funding, and that is mostly from development banks, and green climate funders, who are international,” he announced.
“We are very pleased with how the entrepreneurial project is going. We have had a number of engagements around the world with media entities like the BBC and we are now at the UN,” the UWI head stated.
He said Dr Henry is at the UN participating in the 25th Informal Consultative Process on Oceans and the Law of the Sea (ICP). Established by the UN General Assembly to review developments in ocean affairs, the ICP will this year focus on capacity building and marine technology transfer, exploring new developments, approaches, and challenges in these areas.
“She is speaking about her research project, and we are very proud of her,” said Professor Landis. “She is speaking about Cave Hill research at the UWI, on a panel which has to do with the transfer of marine technology for sustainable development.
“This concept… that you can drive a vehicle on power with sargassum is now finding its way into the highest level of conversations relating to marine technology, and it is also attracting investors like institutional investments for example, the European Union and also private investors.”
Professor Landis, who is also UWI Pro Vice-Chancellor, declined to place a timeline on when the biofuel project would become commercially available, explaining that this type of research takes time.
“But, I would say that we are having discussions internationally and nationally, to convert vehicles to drive on compressed natural gas which can become sustainable bio-CNG,” he stressed.
The university, in collaboration with Rum and Sargassum Inc., a biomass company formed by Dr Henry, launched the pilot of the island’s first sargassum-powered cars late last year.
The bio-CNG uses rum distillery wastewater and sargassum-based biomethane, an innovative fuel source derived from the invasive seaweed that is plaguing the region’s coasts.
The seasonal issue posed by sargassum on the island’s beaches is now being seen as a valuable resource as the country seeks to achieve its goal of becoming a 100 per cent renewable energy and carbon-neutral island state by 2030.
emmanueljoseph@barbadostoday.bb
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