Mexico Is Betting on Biofuel to Tackle Its Seaweed Crisis
Oracle’s $165 Billion Data Center Plan Hits a Gas Pipeline Delay Felicity Bradstock is a writer and journalist based in Mexico City.
She writes for energy websites and covers several other industries, as well as writing… Over the past 15 years, Mexico has faced a severe seaweed problem, with vast quantities of a brown seaweed known as sargassum washing up on beaches along the Caribbean coast and hitting the tourism industry hard.
Researchers are yet to find an effective way to prevent the seaweed from washing ashore or to effectively predict its movement.
As the Mexican government attempts to manage the huge quantities of seaweed each year, researchers are exploring potential uses for the algae, such as biofuel or fertiliser.
As much as 9,000 tons of seaweed is washing up on Mexico’s beaches every day along the Caribbean coast, a popular spot for tourists who contribute heavily to the region’s revenue.
Governments across major destinations such as Cancun, Tulum, and Playa del Carmen are fighting to keep beaches clean by using industrial equipment, such as diggers, to clear the seaweed so visitors can continue to use the beaches and swim in the sea.
However, this is a daily battle and annual expenditure on sargassum management stands at around $2 billion, roughly equivalent to 11 per cent of the local GDP.
Sargassum smells like rotten eggs and releases methane as it decomposes.
While it is not thought to significantly threaten public health, it can affect the health of vulnerable populations and workers who are regularly exposed to the seaweed.
Meanwhile, tourists often avoid beaches where the seaweed washes up because of the smell, the inability to swim, and the weed’s visual impact.
This has driven many visitors to explore alternative destinations that have not yet experienced sargassum problems, such as Mexico’s Pacific coast.
In July, Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum announced a$115 million plan to combat surging sargassum in the Caribbean.
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