The promise of kelp-powered flight

Kelp is a type of seaweed that is fast-growing and relatively easy to cultivate, making it a vital source of food in many parts of the world. But could it also be used to power the aircraft of the future? From the US to the UK and India, seaweed cultivation is experiencing a renaissance, with manifold potential uses in agriculture and as a sustainable source of fuel for aviation.

The vast majority of flights are currently powered by fossil fuels, which contribute nearly 2.5% of the world’s carbon dioxide emissions and around 3.5% when non-CO2 emissions are taken into account. Renewable alternatives such as biofuels from crops on land come with their own sustainability issues, such as massive use of land and water and harm to biodiversity. Seaweed, on the other hand, requires only a fraction of the resources to grow, and has been the subject of more than a decade of experiments as a fuel.

Catriona Macleod, deputy head of the Fisheries and Aquaculture Centre at the University of Tasmania’s Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies in Australia, describes seaweed as the “Swiss army knife” of tools to tackle planetary challenges. One of those challenges is a sustainable source of fuel for aviation. However, while there is a lot of enthusiasm about seaweed as a potential fuel source, it is not a miracle crop. The quantities of seaweed required to fuel long-distance transport would be considerable, and scaling up seaweed aquaculture is a grand challenge in itself.

Restoring degraded natural kelp forests could also help to deacidify the oceans and restore ecosystems. But could it also help people to travel the world sustainably? Join me in the third episode of Future Planet’s video series New Directions, where we ask what it would take to power planes using seaweed. While seaweed may not be a miracle solution to the challenges facing the aviation industry, it has the potential to play an important role in a sustainable future.

Picture Credit: The University of Virginia