The key to the success of seaweed farming is its growing commercial potential. Illustration: sciencefriday. A new study argues that growing a sufficient number of green seaweeds can help reduce pollution, absorbing most of the harmful waste. The study’s co-author, Phoebe Racine, said the thesis was just an early idea and implementation would take time, but given the lack of progress in other aspects, “there was no other option.” in addition to considering alternative methods”. Racine, a researcher at the University of California at Santa Barbara, says growing a variety of seaweed species in less than 1 percent of the Gulf of Mexico’s waters could help the United States meet pollution reduction goals that are already out of reach. . She and her colleagues mapped the suitable area for seaweed cultivation in the Gulf, and the suitable area could be more than 38,500 square kilometers. The Gulf of Mexico is being choked with agricultural and municipal waste. In May 2019, the Mississippi River discharged an average of more than 5,000 tons of nitrates and 800 tons of phosphorus into the Gulf of Mexico, the highest levels in 40 years. These excess nutrients from farm fertilizers and animal waste in the Midwest robs the oceans of oxygen off the coasts of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas, fueling toxic algae blooms that have led to the so-called “dead zone”. Eutrophication (also known as eutrophication) is when there are too many nutrients in the pond/lake such as nitrate, phosphorus, which exceed the self-regulating capacity of the pond/lake, causing dense growth of plant and animal death due to lack of oxygen. To environmental experts, this problem seems intractable. Called eutrophication, dead zones are proliferating all over the world. There are more than 700 coastal areas worldwide that are “dead zones” or negatively impacted by currents. While the United States bears the bulk of agricultural waste, municipal wastewater is the main culprit in South America, Asia, and Africa. Annually, they cause economic losses of $3.4 billion in Europe and the United States alone by affecting tourism and fishing resources; while reducing property values, water treatment and adverse health effects. Over the past 10 years, 85 communities in the United States have spent a total of more than $1 billion to prevent or treat toxic algal blooms. Among the hardest hit areas is at the mouth of the Mississippi River, where the continued discharge of domestic waste from the heart of the United States has destroyed the local seafood and tourism industries. The Mississippi River empties into the Gulf of Mexico, carrying fertilizer and livestock waste from Midwestern farms. Photo: Bloomberg. Growing seaweed is considered as one of the green solutions to solve this problem. Seaweed farming dates back to 1,700 years ago in China. Today, countries like Indonesia and the Philippines, along with China and South Korea, lead the world in this area. In South Korea, where aquaculture has grown by 300% in the past 30 years, an intensive effort has proven its usefulness as a waste reduction tool. According to one study, farms that grow three major seaweed species and two shellfish species (all filter feeds without additional feed) accounted for 5.7% of carbon dioxide and 8.6% of carbon dioxide emissions. nitrogen emissions from all wastewater treatment plants in Korea. The key to the success of seaweed farming is its growing commercial potential. These aquatic plants can absorb excess nitrogen and phosphorus, turning it not only into food for humans, but also expanding a range of other commercial uses. The most commonly grown seaweeds include red or brown algae or algae. Some are used to make culinary thickeners or jellies for culturing bacteria in the lab. Others are dried into sheets for sushi rolls. While sugar kelp can be used as a sweetener, kelp is also used in toothpaste, shampoo, frozen foods, and even pharmaceuticals. Making seaweed farms profitable will be an important consideration to promote them as an agricultural and municipal waste treatment solution. Asia currently has a very strong demand for seaweed. Human consumption, which includes everything from sushi rolls to broths to salads, is the largest market for harvested seaweed. But growing demand can also be seen in the cosmetic and fertilizer industries, as well as aquafeeds. However, mass aquaculture faces a number of significant obstacles, particularly its labor-intensive nature. Globally, the demand for seaweed is forecast to double to $30 billion by 2025. However, in the United States, the seaweed market is relatively small. Gretchen Grebe, an aquaculture scientist at the Marine Biology Laboratory in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, says seaweed farming in the US is largely “in the R&D phase.” “Using seaweed farming to remediate any large amounts of nutrient pollution would require significant expansion — the current scale of farming wouldn’t even matter,” says Grebe. In the United States, states have different regulations regarding aquaculture licensing. While it’s relatively easy to get a seaweed farm permit in Maine and Alaska, in California it requires meeting a stack of overlapping regulations. Bailey Moritz, Program Manager of the World Wildlife Fund, said: “Offshore activities hold promise. Our goal is to see seaweed growth that will have meaningful impacts [đối với sự suy giảm chất dinh dưỡng], and scale is needed for that.” But large-scale offshore seaweed farming is still at least a decade away from taking place in the US, and only when biofuels, bioplastics and animal feed are generated enough. need. Seaweed holds great promise, Grebe said, but scientists are quick to point out that the main driver is the imperative to reduce watershed waste inputs. “We are asking a lot of seaweed farmers to treat the nutritional waste that we dump into the Gulf,” she concludes.

MSc Do Nguyen Hoang Nga (third from left) and the research team on new environmentally friendly materials products. Photo: NVCC

She once defended her Master’s thesis in English with a score of 9.9 and was honored to be one of 31 students and researchers who received a “huge” scholarship awarded by the National University of Ho Chi Minh City.

Passionate about renewable materials

Do Nguyen Hoang Nga graduated from university with an engineering degree in Chemical Engineering at University of Technology – National University of Ho Chi Minh City in 2018 and continued to study for a master’s degree at the school. In 2020, she graduated with a Master’s degree with an average score of 9.63, a thesis in English with a score of 9.9. Hoang Nga is continuing her research work with the Sustainable Process Engineering team led by Assoc.Prof.Dr. Le Thi Kim Phung.

The team’s research direction is to develop technologies to convert agricultural-industrial by-products into renewable materials with high technical value such as aerogels, multi-disciplinary applications such as construction, environmental treatment, food packaging. and aimed at applications in medicine, fuel cells …

MSc Do Nguyen Hoang Nga said that the group is currently focusing on renewable materials from biomass. This field is quite new and is the trend of the current world when the environment is increasingly polluted. Her approach towards zero waste technology, turning worthless things into valuable products has fascinated her for the past two years.

“In 2019, I have access to aerogel synthesis technology from pineapple leaves through the cooperation between the Sustainable Process Engineering team and the Aerogel research team of Assoc.Prof.Dr. Duong Minh Hai – National University of Singapore. After that, my team and I continue to expand this research direction with other types of waste such as fly ash, waste cotton chips, pandan leaf fibers … Up to now, these studies have had positive results at room scale. experiment and pilot, as a basis to be transferred into industrial production when an organization is interested in placing an order “, shared Hoang Nga.

During the implementation of the studies, Hoang Nga and the group encountered many difficulties in funding and analysis equipment. Some of the equipment at the laboratory is not available, so the group has to link with domestic and foreign laboratories to send measurement samples. Passive analysis can sometimes make progress difficult. However, some research topics of the group are supported by funding from scientific funding funds, thus partly removing the group’s obstacles.

MSc Do Nguyen Hoang Nga has the honor to receive a graduate scholarship from the National University of Ho Chi Minh City. Photo: NVCC

Hope to be available on the market soon

With the current research direction on renewable materials from biomass, Hoang Nga and his team wish to create more conditions for research and development of modern and efficient technologies in industrial production.

As an application-oriented research group, the group always puts the feasibility criteria when producing on an industrial scale on top. The direction of non-waste recycling from biomass is approaching in line with the trend of Vietnam as well as in the world when the problem of environmental pollution caused by waste is concerned by many people. After all, the team still wants to apply the developed technology on an industrial scale to the industrial scale of this material to be available on the market early.

Assoc. her research as a research engineer. Within two years, Russia and the research team had outstanding achievements in scientific publication with 11 international articles on the SCIE list, 1 article on Scopus, 2 domestic articles and 2 reports in the yearbook. prestigious international seminar with research orientation to develop technology to manufacture aerogel materials, ultra-light solid materials containing more than 90% air, from wastes such as pineapple leaves, coir, bagasse cotton, waste tires… ”.

“Russia has the quality of a researcher who is serious, honest, creative and passionate about science, always shows a high sense of responsibility, critical thinking, sociable, energetic and cheerful. with people. According to the students in my lab, Russia does not hesitate to help them when there are problems or problems. All my students want to work with Russia for their devotion and valuable advice to them ”, said Associate Professor, Dr. Kim Phung.

To keep the fire passionate about science, especially with female scientists, it is necessary to encourage and care from family, friends and colleagues because it is the spiritual strength that helps us to persevere. intensify forward. Besides, thanks to scientific research funding from the university budget, the National University of Ho Chi Minh City, the Department of Science and Technology of Ho Chi Minh City, the Vingroup Innovation Fund, the domestic research groups … confidence and research effort. – Master Hoang Nga