Thursday, March 26, 2009

Venice To Convert Invading Chinese Seaweed Into Electricity In £200m Eco-Project

From The Telegraph:

Venice is to convert invading Chinese seaweed that has been clogging the city's canals into electricity in a £200 million eco-project.

The Chinese seaweed, along with its native Italian counterpart, has been growing at a phenomenal rate along the canals and in the outlying lagoon, but officials have said that green algae will be converted to produce as much as half of the city's energy in a biomass fermentation plant on the outskirts of the city, the Port of Venice Authority said.

"The plant would have zero emissions and would produce half of the electricity needed for the city. If the go ahead is given the plant could be up and running within two years," Paolo Costa, president of the Port of Venice Authority, said Japanese researchers developed a system which uses microorganisms to break down the seaweed. The methane gas that results from this process is used as fuel for a gas engine that produces electricity.

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