Algae, seaweed or kelp refers to a larger family of marine plants that grow through photosynthesis, similar to trees and plants on land. Algae cultivation started to become more popular as companies began to diversify the production of food, due to the fact that the current food system will not be able to support Earth's population for much more time.

But as they grew kelp for feeding purposes, scientists also discovered that these plants have a great capacity to capture and store carbon emissions, while being useful for manufacturing alternative materials that can help us lower our production footprint.

A flexible and very hungry CO2 type of organism

Some experts argue that, in fact, the global population of algae accounts for as much as 50% of the planet's carbon capture capacity! By using artificial farms to grow seaweed, we would require significantly less space compared to trees, for example, while seaweed's growth rate, 50 times faster than that of terrestrial plants, can help store massive amounts of CO2 in no time. And again, algae could be used for food production, but it can even be turned into biofuels, alternative power sources with a lower footprint compared to the fossil fuels that we use widely.

MIT professor of mechanical engineering Kripa Varanasi said that "for every two or three kilograms of CO2, a kilogram of algae could be produced, and these could be used as biofuels, or for Omega-3, or food."

The advantage of growing kelp on land in large tanks is that these sites can be implemented in different locations and can then be moved later on, depending on what the land might be needed for. If, for example there is a coastal piece of land that is needed for real estate development, a kelp farm can be moved from there, while still allowing the plants to capture carbon emissions.

You can't do that with trees, obviously, and cutting down forests to make room for different terrestrial projects implies releasing back the emissions in the atmosphere, while with kelp, it's not the same. These can be turned into foods or products quickly, meaning that the CO2 they captured remains there.

Innovations in growing kelp

It's no wonder that following the discovery of algae's ability to capture carbon quickly, researchers have been exploring ways to further accelerate this process. One of the ways we can supercharge algae's CO2 capture capabilities is through the use of photobioreactors. While using shallow tanks is the most common way to grow kelp, these photobioreactors can boost the growth rate by 10 times for the same surface.

The problem, however, is that this solution requires constant cleanups due to seaweed covering the transparent walls, meaning that personnel have to constantly shut down these tanks to keep them in mint condition.

This cuts actual yields in half, while adding to operational costs, but we should give it some time and researchers will probably find a way to solve this problem, as well.

But Varanasi and his team already developed a solution, called electrostatic repulsion, which implies using electric shocks that can keep algae away from the transparent walls, since the algae cells carry a small negative electric charge. This means using electricity, but shouldn't be a problem, as solar panels have become affordable and easy to install, so these artificial farms can make use of solar panels and even energy storage solutions to power these electric ponds.

Companies already teaming-up with algae

There are currently companies that work with kelp to help us lower our carbon footprint and to give us an alternative source to feed ourselves and even to produce more sustainable goods. London-based Brilliant Planet is a 2013 startup that does just that and it found a way to capture carbon emissions at gigaton scale using seaweed as the sole resource.

”Algae are inherently more efficient carbon-removal machines than terrestrial plants as they don’t spend biological resources on building a supporting infrastructure of trunks, roots and branches — their entire surface area is dedicated to photosynthesis”, said the company co-founder Raffael Jovine.

Brilliant Planet also employs a sophisticated software solution to aid algae in capturing the carbon emissions efficiently and quickly, maximizing the yields' productivity, as well.

As company CEO and co-founder Adam Taylor explains, “our digital platform reacts precisely to the real-time status of the algae, with only a few basic low-cost inputs from each pond and public weather information. Commercially, this has been the real breakthrough."

In its mission to become carbon neutral, Microsoft also makes use of algae to reduce its carbon footprint, getting help from the startup Running Tide, which uses kelp to slow down the carbon transfer process that happens between our oceans and our atmosphere.

There is the fast cycle, which happens every few years and it allows carbon concentration in the atmosphere to remain high. Then, there is the slow cycle, which keeps carbon emissions in the ocean and out of the air we breathe for much longer, for hundreds or even millions of years.

Running Tide's solution is based on specially deployed buoys that are located hundreds of miles from the shore.

They are made of limestone and forest matter and have algae seeds in them. The algae grow by absorbing carbon from the atmosphere, while the rest just dissolves away. In the process, it loses the ability to float and just sinks to the ocean floor, capturing carbon emissions with it.

We also said that seaweed can be used to manufacture more sustainable alternative for various goods that we use on a daily basis. Macro Oceans is one of the companies that uses kelp to develop environmentally-friendly packaging, as the algae industry is currently developing in the US. Asia is one of the most developed areas when it comes to growing kelp, as many nations there consume them as food and Europe is another emerging market for growing kelp.

Matthew Perkins, Founder and CEO at Macro Oceans, who previously worked in seed genetics, said that "I spent a decade or so in that industry, and had seen the enormous impact modern agriculture has on our planet."

He believes that kelp-based plastic is better than corn-derived varieties, as the former is able to degrade faster, should it reach the environment.

As more companies will join the effort, even more innovations will come into play in this industry, contributing to the world's objective of capturing carbon emissions and offering us an alternative food and raw material feedstock.