Marine Biomass Program - Annual Report for 1979

The Marine Biomass Program is a Research and Development Program which has as its overall objective the development of integrated processes for production and harvesting of seaweed in the ocean and conversion of that seaweed to methane costs competitive, on commercial scale, with other alternate energy production systems.

The General Electric Company has been the prime contractor in the conduct of this R&D Program for the Gas Research Institute since December 1976. The United States Departmet of Energy has also sponsored research on this program by funding to the California Institute of Technology, and has provided additional support to the program through a cooperitive grant made to General Electric in 1978.

Experimental data has shown that controlled cultivation of macroalgae is feasible, and that fuels can be derived from marine biomass feedstocks. Extensive work with Macrocystis has indicated that it can be grown in the open ocean when fertilized by artifically upwelled deep ocean waters. Kelp thus derived has been shown to be favorably suited to methane production by the process of anaerobic conversion. This report expands upon this data base with emphasis on the technical and economic requirements of the critical parameters associated with biomass yield and overall energy balance.