Fertilising the Sea to Grow Algae & Biofuel

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Using the sea to grow biofuel

One reason the sea (unlike the land) is not covered with plants is that it lacks crucial nutrients—iron, in particular. Add iron, the theory goes, and you will promote the growth of algae. These will absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and then conveniently sink when they die. Thus, over the course of a few decades, the concentration of the gas in the atmosphere will return to pre-industrial levels.

The law of unintended consequences argues against doing any such thing, of course. But an experiment carried out a decade ago in the Southern Ocean suggests that the underlying idea is sound—and at a conference in Oxford this week, John Munford, an independent British researcher, suggested that a more modest version of the “fertilise the oceans” project might indeed help to stop climate change. Mr Munford's proposal is to harvest the algae, rather than allowing them to die and sink.

Full article @ The Economist

Nature gave us oil from algae; perhaps we should try Nature's way again