PML: Invasive Seaweed Finds New Role as Coastal Cleanup Hero
seaweed usually requires removing it from the saltwater, washing it in fresh water and drying it. The costs of these processes can be prohibitively high.”As a solution, the team devised a process that, using acidic and basic catalysts, releases sugars that can be fed to a yeast that produces a palm oil substitute. This method also prepares the residual seaweed for the next stage of processing, called hydrothermal liquefaction. The organic material is subjected to high temperature and pressure, turning the seaweed into bio-oil that can be processed further into fuels and high-quality, low-cost
Total Determined to Drill Amazon Basin as Greenpeace Storms AGM
oil production blocks in French Guyana, which will boost its presence in the potentially lucrative Guyana basin.Total faces more protests this month, after France's largest farmers' union called for a blockade of French oil refineries in protest at the company's decision to use imported palm oil at a new biofuel production site.(Reporting by Bate Felix; Writing by Richard Lough; Editing by David Evans and Susan Fenton
Hong Kong Continues Cleanup Following Palm Oil Spill
Hong Kong stepped up efforts on Wednesday to clean up a massive palm oil spill, with authorities scooping up more than 90 tonnes of foul-smelling, styrofoam-like clumps in one of the worst environmental disasters to blight the territory's waters. Dead fish, shells, rocks, plastic bottles and other rubbish could still be found coated with globules of palm oil on beaches across the Chinese-controlled territory six days after the spill caused after two vessels collided in the Pearl River estuary. The government said it had scooped up 93 tonnes of oil waste, most of it congealed, and the
February 2025
