Rum and Sargassum‘s anaerobic digestion of Sargassum seaweed with rum distillery wastewater to create biomethane to power Barbados’ vehicles move away from fossil fuels was among several innovative startups discussed at a recent virtual conference on seaweed.
Titled “Seaweed Around the Clock“, the event covered several aspects of the seaweed industry. Session 19 spotlighted three Sargassum valorisation startups, among them Rum and Sargassum, which produces affordable, fossil-fuel free, renewable compressed natural gas (RNG), using the anaerobic co-digestion of low-cost, locally sourced organic matter including rum distillery wastewater, Sargassum seaweed and Barbados Blackbelly sheep manure, in a multi-step process that involves hydrolysis, acidogenesis, acetogenesis and methanogenesis. The output is a mixture of biomethane with carbon dioxide and small quantities of other gases which is then upgraded to mostly biomethane.
