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UWI Science | Sargassum as fuel for your car!

Dr. Legena henry (left) and Aria Goodridge (right) 

The Caribbean could be on to a new source of fuel to power transportation while also helping the islands address the high cost of imported fossil fuel for cars, climate change and the hazards of increased influx of sargassum seaweed on local beaches. This is based on new research supported by the Inter-American Development Bank, titled ‘Environmental Evidence on the use of Biomethane from Rum Distillery Waste and Sargassum seaweed as an Alternative Fuel for Transportation in Barbados’. The research was led by Dr. Legena Henry (UWI-FST, Cave Hill) and included final year UWI Mona Electronics and Alternative Energy Systems student Aria Goodridge along with other authors. The study specifically examined the potential to exploit sargassum seaweed that inundates the coasts of Barbados, along with locally produced wastewater from rum distilleries, to produce biomethane gas. This is as an alternative transportation fuel via compressed natural gas conversions of local gasolene vehicles.

Sargassum along the shoreline of the Hellshire Beach in St Catherine
 
To learn more about the BSc in Electronics and Alternative Energy Systems: https://www.mona.uwi.edu/physics/home
 
 
 
 
 

 

 

 

 

Published on 02 Sep, 2021

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