Italy’s biodiesel suppliers join forces to generate fuel from seaweed and take on climate change. Previously, the nation’s biodiesel companies have used crops like corn to convert the sucrose of the plant into energy for fuel. As the biodiesel industry has continued to experiment with other plants for efficient generation of biofuels, sea plants like algae and seaweed are being explored and are looking like reliable resources.

The Union of Biodiesel Producers in Italy is leading this effort which sprung from work at the University of Florence, which is currently conducting experiments on seaweed specifically grown as a feedstock, and not extracted from oceans. Large plastic tubes are filled with sea water and carbon dioxide that has been captured from power plants.

This method is intriguing because it keeps precious seaweed food resources in the oceans for biological life and prevents would-be carbon dioxide emissions from entering the atmosphere, a leading cause of anthropogenic climate change. Using seaweed also relieves biodiesel suppliers from criticism about the rise in food prices as more crop land is used for fuel production and less for food production, increasing the per item price of everyday fruits and vegetables.

The Union hopes to finalize production methods by 2010 and then build a manufacturing plant .