Seaweed is big business in the Asian food and pharma sectors so Irish researchers are trying to unlock our coastal resources

IT IS LITERALLY all around us. More than 500 varieties of seaweed can be found off the Irish coast. While some of us may have enjoyed the odd seaweed bath, it still remains a relatively undervalued resource in this country with plenty of untapped potential.

Due to its high nutritional content, seaweed was, at one point, a major food source for coastal communities, but its association with the Famine as a food of last resort has meant it fell out of fashion for some time. That negative image appears to be changing.

Seaweed has been known to have therapeutic powers for the treatments of tuberculosis, arthritis, colds and influenza etc. In addition, it has become a key food additive, can be used in food dyes and has antioxidant properties. Polysaccharides – long-chain molecules extracted from brown and red algae – are very useful as emulsifiers, stabilisers and thickeners.

Seaweed is big business in Asia, where it is cultivated and used in a variety of food and beauty products. Nine-tenths of the world’s production for commercial use takes place in China, Japan and Korea. It is also commonly used as a sugar-rich animal feedstock in the US.

Of the 500 species that can be found here, though, only a small number are harvested. Now researchers in at NUI Galway’s Ryan Institute are taking part in a European collaborative project to investigate the potential of algae as a source of sustainable energy.

Algal bio-energy development is still in its infancy, but NUI Galway’s participation in the Energetic Algae project (EnAlgae), a four-year, €1.2-million initiative which hopes to shed more light on this undervalued resource all around us.

EnAlgae involves eight European states: France, Belgium, Britain, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands, Switzerland and Luxembourg. “This is just one of several integrative biofuel projects the EU hopes to fund in the future,” says Dr Maeve Edwards of NUI Galway. “We are trying to develop knowledge shared between lots of different countries and work together to push this forward as quickly as possible, so that we can reduce CO2 emissions in northwest Europe.”

Each country is involved in different aspects of investigation. “Some are looking at how to improve efficiencies, looking at policy landscapes, trying to work out if we can produce seaweed biomass effectively.

From there, we need to see if we can produce the fuel from it. Then we must assess whether the EU is ready to create its own fuel and assimilate all this knowledge so that policymakers or local entrepreneurs alike can go to a computer model we’re developing that will have Europe-wide statistics and information on seaweed production, something which is severely lacking right now.”

The Irish research team will be involved specifically in the development of the seaweed. Macroalgae biomass will be cultivated at sea off the southwest coast on a one-hectare facility.

“It can be farmed on land or out in the sea,” says Dr Dagmar Stengel of the NUI Galway Ryan Institute.

“Farming it on land is more expensive but more predictable and you get a guaranteed high-value product. Alternatively, it can be done on seeded ropes that are directed out into the sea from land. Open-sea cultivation is very unpredictable, though. All you need is one big storm and it’s all gone.”

Despite its abundance off the Irish coast, conditions for cultivating seaweed biomass are not ideal here. “Preferably, you need lots of space and a hot climate, like Australia, the US or Israel,” says Stengel, who is not convinced that Irish seaweed biomass will be able to produce sustainable biofuel levels.

“I’m doubtful it will work here. “There’s people doing it all over the world in better conditions, but they’re not getting anywhere.”

This is for the same reason that many biofuel projects are failing: the amount of energy input required far outweighs the output. “We don’t have enough biomass for this off the Irish coast,” she says. “The alterative is cultivation on land, but then we’d need to look at the energy balance. Our labour isn’t cheap and the climate isn’t suitable. My overall conclusion is that it’s not practical.”

Despite informed views like this, there are a number of reasons to continue with the project in the expectation that other useful outcomes will result. The collaborative nature of EnAlgae means well-needed statistics can be brought together on overall seaweed varieties and amounts all around northwest Europe.

“The marine environment in general is now seen in the same way the rainforest was 20 years ago – a frontier yet to be explored for potentially bioactive compounds,” Edwards says. “There could be so many potential medicinal products found by studying marine plants and algae. Seaweed is accessible and can be cultivated. We already know some of its uses but with further study we could learn just how valuable it potentially is.”

Ironically, in the one area where Irish people are most familiar with using seaweed – as a therapeutic bathing element – scientists do not fully understand why it has been known to have healing properties.

“Seaweed baths feel nice,” Stengel says. “Seaweed contains lots of minerals which release when you put brown algae into hot water and this gives it a nice texture – but we don’t know exactly what the benefits are from a scientific perspective. We know it works but we don’t why."