Located in the north-eastern state of Pernambuco, the $9.8m facility will produce up to 1.2m litres of algae-based biofuels a year. Austrian firm SEE Algae Technology (SAT) is building the facility on an ethanol-producing sugar cane plantation owned by Brazilian company Grupo JB.

The plant will produce algae biomass and bioethanol from both natural and genetically modified algae strains.

There are already plans for a second similar facility in the state of Espírito Santo in the south-east of Brazil.

Large-scale production of biofuels from land-based crops has become increasingly controversial due to concerns that it leads to the destruction of forests, pushes up food prices and actually increases greenhouse gas emissions. Using algae means the SAT plant will not require growing any crops that will compete with food crops for land and water.

According to the company, algae is quick to mature and much more efficient for biofuel production than corn or soybeans.

Dr Joachim Grill, CEO of SAT, said his company’s technology can achieve cost and environmental advantages over fossil fuels, “all without using either arable land or food crops.”

SAT has also produced upright bioreactors where algae can develop in a controlled environment perforated by sunlight, thereby avoiding the huge surface area demands and potential dangers involved with previously used open pools.

In a further pioneering step, carbon dioxide (CO₂) emitted during ethanol production, which would otherwise go to waste, will be used to speed up photosynthesis.

“For each ethanol litre produced, one kilogram of CO₂ is released in the atmosphere. We are going to take this CO₂ to feed our plant,” said Rafael Bianchini, head of SAT’s Brazilian subsidiary.

The plant is expected to use 5% of CO₂ emissions from ethanol production to begin with, but SAT says the figure will rise with time.

However, Anders Dahlbeck, biofuels expert at ActionAid, said that other countries should remain cautious about seaweed biofuel until proper sustainability research has been carried out.

“To avoid negative impacts, countries and regional blocs such as the European Union need to put in place rigorous regulatory frameworks before production of algae-based biofuels,” he said. “These should include human rights impact assessments and a robust life cycle analysis of the entire production cycle to ensure that production does not have negative social and climate impacts.”

Construction of the Brazil plant is due to be completed before the end of the year and the plant could be operational shortly afterwards.

SAT was awarded the Brazilian Bioenergy Innovation of the Year 2012 award for its work with Grupo JB, which the judging panel said could provide a major boost for commercialisation of microalgae-based biofuels worldwide.

Brazil is the second biggest producer of biofuels after the US.

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The Mineral Salt is a healthy alternative to table salt, made from 50% wild organic Hebridean seaweed and 50% unrefined Cornish Sea Salt.

Seagreens, the company behind the product, is an Anglo-Scottish joint venture, which its founder, Simon Ranger, first started in Norwegian Lapland with the aim of “getting at least a daily gram of the finest seaweeds into the human diet.”

Simon says that eating ocean vegetables can restore our balance of micronutrients, which are now drastically depleted in soils and the food chain and are imbalanced in diets consisting of manufactured foods.

With current daily salt intake levels of up to 10 grams per person, Simon hopes that by replacing half the salt in a range of everyday foods with ground up wrack seaweed (which tastes much like normal salt), 4-5 grams of whole food seaweed can be introduced into the national diet.

“This would be similar to the level of seaweed in the traditional Japanese diet, among the healthiest in the world,” Simon says, “and it would meet the government’s targets to cut salt by at least 4 grams a day.”

Over the past 14 years, Seagreens has established itself as Britain’s leading brand for seaweed food and has recently won product awards for The Mineral Salt as well as having won awards for its business practice and its research into obesity.

The company has established the Seaweed Health Foundation for seaweed research and education, with offices in Edinburgh and London. Alongside other manufacturers and its academic partners, such as the Centre for Food Innovation at Sheffield, the foundation will further research health issues and ways in which seaweed can help to balance our daily diet. 20% of Seagreens’ ingredient sales are donated to the Seaweed Health Foundation.

The Mineral Salt, in a 100g glass jar with a shaker top, is available in natural food stores including Planet Organic, Revital and Whole Foods Market in London and elsewhere. For a free copy of The Rebalancing Potential of Seaweed by Simon Ranger, please contact Seagreens.

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