Can seaweed save the world?
ABC Transcript
Can Seaweed Save The World? ABC Transcript
Professor Tim Flannery investigates how seaweed is helping to save the world - from growing the foods of the future, helping clean polluted water and even combating climate change.
Growing seaweed is now a ten billion dollar a year global industry. Tim travels to Korea to see some of the biggest seaweed farms in the world and meets the scientists who are hoping to create a seaweed revolution here in Australia.
Broadcast: Tue 22 Aug 2017, 12:00am
Published: Tue 22 Aug 2017, 12:00am
Transcript
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PROF. TIM FLANNERY: Of all nature's wild and wondrous organisms there's one I've rather fallen for. Because despite appearances, seaweed has hidden superpowers. I'm Tim Flannery, I'm a scientist and environmental advocate. I'm going to explore how this humble weed has become a $10 billion dollar business. It's all because seaweed is one of the fastest growing Life forms on the planet.
TIM: Amazing - how Long has this been growing?
1K KYO CHUNG: Just one season!
TIM: One season? Wow!
PROF. TIM FLANNERY: And I'm going to find out how seaweed is being used to solve some of the world's biggest problems. Like growing the foods of the future, cleaning polluted water, and even combating climate change.
TIM: Once it gets down below about a kilometer, that carbon isn't coming back. Don't worry, this isn't a doom and gloom film - this is about solutions! Wow, now Pia this is a science Lab. This is fantastic.
PROF. TIM FLANNERY: And with our endless coastlines Australia could be a big player in a global seaweed revolution. Seaweed has to be just about the most useful and underrated stuff on the whole planet.
I'm diving the waters around Magnetic Island, off the coast of Northern Queensland, and something's not right. The Great Barrier Reef is just a short boat ride away. And where I should see radiant coral this seaweed is taking over. They're growing fast partly on nutrients that have washed off the Land along the coast.
The Great Barrier Reef is really in trouble and part of the problem comes from the Land where there's farms who use fertiliser. They run down the rivers into the ocean and cause things like seaweed to really bloom and grow strongly. And that's can overwhelm the coral. But the good news is there's an entirely nature solution to that kind of pollution problem.
And it's all happening just a couple of hours down the coast outside the town of Ayr. I've hit the road, with one of the world's foremost seaweed experts Professor Rocky de Nys.
ROCKY: Worried about my driving skills in the interview!
TIM: No worries. So is there a Lot of money going into seaweed at the moment?
ROCKY: There is. Because it does such a good job in remediating the environment, there's millions of dollars being invested in research.
TIM: That's sounds fantastic. I'd Love to see what you're doing.
ROCKY: Well Tim, Let's go fishing.
TIM: Ah wow. Now you've got me hooked mate. Very interested.
ROCKY: Oh nice work. Let's see what we can find.
PROF. TIM FLANNERY: Rocky's university has teamed with a technology firm to develop an experimental seafood farm. Each pond holds 12 tonnes of prawns, or 30 tonnes of fish. There's over 100 ponds - but the secret to this whole place is seaweed.
Geeze Rocky. These are mighty fish mate. I've never heard of cobia before. What are they?
ROCKY: Commonly known as black kingfish. They're an oceanic species and they've been adapted to growing in ponds and did remarkably well fast, very fast, very sustainable, and fierce. I'm Looking forward to see how you go with the catching!
TIM: I know these fellas are being harvested today so we better do our best to get a good Look at one.
ROCKY: Good Luck Tim!
TIM: So what sort of seaweed is this Rocky?
ROCKY: It's a species called ulva, it's commonly called sea Lettuce and the great thing about ulva is it grows in the intertidal so it's really adapted to grow in a big range of temperature, really strong sunlight and changes in salinity so it as we go through the growing seasons on the farm, it's robust, and it keeps growing, and it provides year round bioremediation that we need to maintain clear water.
TIM: So it can take anything you throw at it basically?
ROCKY: It's quite amazing in that regard. It's tough customer. No doubt about it.
TIM: And how fast does it grow?
ROCKY: Triple in a week -
TIM: Tripling in a week in volume ?
ROCKY: Yes, yeah...and that's why we harvest every day.
TIM: So Rocky, why does this stuff grow so fast?
ROCKY: It's quite amazing isn't it? So, it's all photosynthetic. There are no structural tissues holding it up - It's not Like a tree with a trunk— everything that it there has the capacity to grow. The faster is grows, the more nitrogen, phosphorus, and carbon, is taken out of the system, and when we harvest that, it's ready to repurpose.
PROF. TIM FLANNERY: Rocky believes he's turned fast growing seaweed into a pollution solution. Farmed seafood has already overtaken farmed beef as a source of protein - if it can be grown cleanly, using a natural process like seaweed, it could help feed the world without polluting the environment.
And it's Lunchtime, Queensland style. Reef-friendly seaweed-grown tiger prawns... And a chance to find out what Rocky's doing with all the seaweed he's growing.
ROCKY: Here we go Tim.
TIM: Oh, Rocky, that Looks magnificent!
ROCKY: Doesn't it! Fresh out of the pond.
TIM: Are they! From the farm?
ROCKY: Yes, from the farm.
TIM: Wonderful. Wow... But what's this here? Looks Like a bit of your weed has got mixed in with it.
ROCKY: Fresh off the farm as well.
TIM: Oh, really!?
ROCKY: Something to try. Adds an extra touch of flavour.
TIM: Okay, can I put a bit on one of yours?
ROCKY: You can. Please. It's terrific.
TIM: Wonderful. Well I'm going to hop in to one of these... Thanks mate... Well this is Queensland for you mate.
ROCKY: Perfect one day, beautiful the next.
TIM: (Laughs). That's right. That seaweed actually - is a beautiful garnish.
ROCKY: Mmm, yes.
TIM: But you're growing a ton of this seaweed a day, if I remember?
ROCKY: That's correct - Yes, we do.
TIM: So you're not eating a ton a day, are ya?
ROCKY: Well, that would be a challenge?
TIM: So where is most of your crop going, at the moment?
ROCKY: At the moment, it goes into an organic fertiliser - It's used on banana plantations!
PROF. TIM FLANNERY: And Rocky is experimenting with a special Long Lasting fertiliser, by baking his seaweed into a kind of charcoal called biochar. Those prawns are delicious, but now Let's step this way...
ROCKY: Here we go Tim — biochar! Have a Look at that.
TIM: Oh, yes! Well it's nicely pelletised, Rocky, Look at that! Beautiful stuff there.
ROCKY: Comes out of the kiln that way. It's ready to go.
TIM: Yeah, it's fantastic. Look at that - Beautiful. So that's made from seaweed.
ROCKY: That's made from seaweed.
TIM: And what percentage of it is carbon?
ROCKY: 20-30% - Depending on how you make it. But what we're trying to do is also make that carbon stay in that soil for as Long as possible. So if you put the biochar into the soil— you're providing a Long-term benefit to soil structure and to nutrients — But you have to make it the right way. There are a few tricks in the process.
TIM: I can imagine, mate.
ROCKY: Yeah... And once you've mastered those, you can develop a product that provides the carbon benefit, and some fertiliser and some trace elements and try and get the best of
PROF. TIM FLANNERY: So a Little of the carbon dioxide that was warming the atmosphere has now been captured - right here in my hand. And Rocky's seaweed roadshow has one Last stop because Australia is at the forefront of a pollution-busting seaweed discovery.
ROCKY: So Tim — Might be something else we can do with this seaweed?
TIM: Oh yeah?
ROCKY: We're in cattle country. What you can do is you can feed seaweed to cows, and it cuts down their production of methane.
TIM: That sounds fantastic! Well if you get a big reduction that would be really substantial. ROCKY: Well methane has 23 times the effect of C02 in terms of greenhouse gas warming, so it will make a big difference.
TIM: Sure, well it sounds good, but does the meat end up tasting Like fish?
ROCKY: Very funny - No!
PROF. TIM FLANNERY: Strange to think - Putting a bit of seaweed in a cow's diet might be such good news for all of us. Spending time with Rocky has really opened up for me the potential seaweeds offer. And this is just the start, because Australia Leads the world in other valuable ways it can be used - including in our own diet!
I'm heading two thousand kilometres south, to the town of Nowra, to meet a scientist turned seaweed entrepreneur. Pia Winberg has spent her Life researching how seaweed can contribute to human health. Five years ago she set up her own business.
TIM: So Pia, you used to be an academic but now you're a businesswoman, so why is that?
DR PIA WINBERG: Well Tim, I found that doing the research on how seaweed can save the world - It wasn't really getting through and so the only way to really do that was to make seaweed mean something to people - and people have actually forgotten how seaweed can actually help them every day - in their nutrition and health - even in future medical devices that we're starting to do research on.
PROF. TIM FLANNERY: Pia's work is part of a growing body of evidence on the health benefits of seaweed.
PIA: My friend David is a great chef and makes some fantastic innovative cuisine.
TIM: Hello Dave.
DAVID: Hey Tim. How are you?
TIM: Good, mate.
PIA: Hi Dave. Here's some seaweed that I've just harvested in milk, for you.
DAVID: Oh, fantastic. Look, I've just Left you some flour out, so do you want to get straight into
TIM: Yeh, I'm game.
DAVID: — making some fresh pasta.
TIM: Sure.
DAVID: So, if you want to grab two teaspoons straight into there.. I'll crack a few eggs.. TIM: This is my first seaweed pasta ever Dave. So forgive me if it's not what it should be.
DAVID: No worries.
TIM: Pia, how Long have people been eating seaweed?
PIA: Oh, there's records from 13000 years ago. So, it's well known that seaweed has been a part of many cultures and their health and nutrition — And that's what seaweed can do in a pasta Like this. We're just putting back nutrients - iodine, iron, magnesium - a whole Lot of really important trace elements. Also, we've got seaweed dietary fibres that are really important for gut health — and we're about 50% deficient in dietary fibres and that's been Linked to a Lot of our chronic disorders — obesity and diabetes, and seaweed can really help overcome those. And of course there's the Omega three!
PROF. TIM FLANNERY: There is evidence Omega 3 fatty acids play a part in the functioning of our brain - and you can get Omega 3 from eating seaweed.
TIM: Gee, it Looks good on the plate, doesnt it?
PIA: It's beautiful.
TIM: Fantastic.
DAVE: There you go guys — Enjoy your seaweed pasta.
TIM: Thank you Dave. Wonderful. Mm..Gee it's good. I can feel my mental processes improving by the bite. It's fantastic. Mm.
PIA: It's got the edge on pasta without seaweed!
TIM: I guess seaweed's got a bad reputation really. People see it on the beaches in stinky piles and think, "oh, I don't think I want to eat that." It's as far from that as you can imagine!
PIA: Well people see seaweed at the end of its Life, dont they? You don't feel Like going to a compost heap in your backyard - you wouldn't eat that either. But seaweed in it's natural environment — is stunning, beautiful, and full of flavour!
PROF. TIM FLANNERY: But the uses of seaweed go well beyond food - there's serious money to be made by those who understand seaweed's complex biology.
PIA: In Australia we have really unique seaweeds in our oceans. We can come to the plate, with a whole new suite of species that are unexplored with exciting molecules. And the products we've found really could help a Lot of people.
PROF. TIM FLANNERY: And the most valuable of all may be products designed for use inside the human body. It's an idea inspired by a traditional use of seaweed. Pia, has anyone checked this for crabs?
PIA: The ancient form of seaweed baths. Something I Learnt in Ireland where theyre still doing it. Enjoy it— Hop in!
TIM: If it's good enough for my ancestors, I suppose I gotta give it a go. Still, oh my goodness.
PIA: How does that feel, Tim?
TIM: It feels a Little slimy PS — very slimy. Oh my goodness gracious. Ohh.
PIA: What you're feeling, Tim, is the molecules from the seaweed that are coming out now, So the molecules in seaweed are sort of basically very compatible with the human, because we're both salty.
TIM: I feel a bit too compatible at the moment. Now is the contact between the seaweed and me at all important?
PIA: Yeah, go ahead — Put it all over you —That's the point.
TIM: Well here we go. Wow, my God, that feels strange. the bath is full of freshly harvested Australian cray-weed. Piping hot, this species oozes buckets of thick slime! That's the most peculiar feeling!
PIA: Looks great, Tim.
TIM: It really is very strange. It's these slimy gels that hold seaweeds together and they're remarkably similar to the ones that hold human bodies together. So researchers want to make use of them.
PROF. TIM FLANNERY: It's part of a promising new field of science called Glycobiology TIM: Wow. Now Pia this is a science lab. This is fantastic.
PIA: Yeah it's fun isnt it, Tim. This is all of our seaweed babies...
PROF. TIM FLANNERY: And she's spent 20 years hunting Australia's coastline for seaweeds with the most valuable properties. It's a bit Like panning for gold.
PIA: What we've got here are unique Australian species that we've actually done the genetic fingerprinting, or bar coding if you like —
TIM: So this is the mother-load?
PIA: It's our mother-lab. (Laughs).
TIM: Mother-lab. Very good. Right.
PROF. TIM FLANNERY: She's been searching for a seaweed gel molecule with a genetic fingerprint that mirrors the connective tissues of human skin.
PIA: So, come in here and see our skin matrix molecule that is really exciting for us. It's extracted here, sitting in this yellowish solution, but we really want to purify it to be able to make use of it. And so we can do that in this vessel here...
PROF. TIM FLANNERY: Having found the right seaweed, then Pia has to extract the glycomolecules, to reveal the most expensive seaweed product yet discovered.
PIA: You'll see here — the purification.
TIM: Yep, that's already happened, hasn't it? That's flocculation!
PIA: Yep!
TIM: So this is your most valuable product, is it?
PIA: That's right. So this is the molecule that is just Like the connective tissue in our own body — which means we can use it for high-end medical devices and applications. Even, for printing new tissue, or injecting it into knees to prevent us from getting osteo-arthritis. For molecules Like that, you're paying Like 10,000 dollars a kilo.
TIM: Wow, so that's the top shelf.
PIA: Top product, Tim!
TIM: Right. Very good.
PROF. TIM FLANNERY: And researchers at the University of Wollongong have re-generated kneecap cartilage by injecting stem cells into her seaweed gel. And different seaweeds have different properties - once you identify those properties you can make other surprising things. And what about this one here? This Looks Like plastic, almost.
PIA: Yep, so we are doing some more chemistry with the seaweed here, and pulling out some really interesting materials.
TIM: So, currently plastics are made out of fossil fuels. So, if you can make plastics out of seaweed, you're turning a Liability into a huge asset, surely!
PIA: Yeah, that's right, Tim. The molecules that we are turning into plastics now, came from algae or plants to start with — and what we're really doing here, is growing them from biosphere we've got rather than digging them up like fossils. So another material, Tim, is, you know, Look at this one. It's Like Leather! And that's from the same seaweed.
TIM: Wow. I go to Bavaria occasionally. Do you think I could make them into a nice pair of Lederhosen?
PIA: I'm sure you'd sing a Lot better with pants Like that, Tim.
TIM: I think it's called "yodelling." (Laughs). That's fantastic. Given continued investment, the work going on here could see interesting results in years to come. The artificial implants certainly show some promise.
PIA: This facility is, you know, a ghost-town of what once was a great industry. The Shoalhaven paper mills used to employ about 600 people back in the day. So, what was once a Large industry — we're seeding it with the future.
PROF. TIM FLANNERY: Central to the operation is her seaweed farm. Wow, well this really is industrial scale, Pia, this is great to see.
PIA: Yeah, well this is how you grow seaweed fast. A few hundred kilos of seaweed in these pools, Tim.
TIM: Right, Well, I can feel the seaweed down there - would you mind if I pulled a bit out and have a Look?
PIA: I wouldn't do that, though, Tim TIM: Okay, all right.
PIA: This is pretty secret seaweed that we're working with for these very special molecules that we're pulling out.
TIM: Okay, well I don't want to reveal any industrial secrets. But just looking at this here, they're bubbling. What's going on here, what is it that's bubbling up?
PIA: So that's carbon dioxide sequestration in action. There's not many places on earth where it would happen faster than right here.
TIM: Wow. Okay. And the C02 is coming from, where are you getting the C02 from?
PIA: Well, that's from the fermentation from the wheat refinery processes.
TIM: Okay, and is that that thing over there? PIA: That's it over there, Tim.
PROF. TIM FLANNERY: Turning wheat into flour creates carbon dioxide, which is piped across to the seaweed farm. It's dissolved into the water tanks to help the seaweed grow.
I think what Pia is building here is pretty inspiring - she's taken a weed that so many of us ignore, and discovered properties that hint at unexpected benefits for human health.
I've been surprised at the things this humble weed can do. And it has me thinking about an even bigger task. It's something close to my heart. For many years I've been involved in issues around climate change - and right now the Levels of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere are a problem — and that's where seaweed might really help. Seaweed grows by using the sun's energy and photosynthesis. And as it does so it takes C02 dissolved in oceans and builds tissues.
Ultimately that C02 has come from the atmosphere. And this stuff can grow 60m a year in some cases - and it's a Lot safer Locked up in seaweed than in atmosphere or in the oceans. I'm wondering if we covered the ocean seaweed farms, could we draw down enough carbon to even reverse climate change! And that's what I want to find out - Could you farm seaweed on the open ocean to draw down carbon from the atmosphere? To do so, I need to Leave these shores, in search of some of the biggest seaweed farms on the planet. And in my hunt for a big scale seaweed industry - I've come to Seoul- capital of South Korea. It's a city 2000 years old with its roots in the past and its eyes on the future. And I've arrived on a most auspicious day. Buddha's birthday.
According to tradition, his two thousand five hundred and sixty first. It's Like nothing I've ever seen before. AIL these Lanterns are hung with prayers. And I've got one of my own. I just asked for a great seaweed harvest for Korea - on Buddha's birthday so its gotta come true. Wow — That's so cool. Seaweed is one of the great traditions of Korean culture - and fifty million people use a Lot of it.
Tomorrow I'll get my first chance to see the scale of the Korean seaweed enterprise. I'm starting my journey in a murky Seoul dawn. I've been to Seoul a couple of times — and every time I arrive here the air pollution gets worse. As you can tell — People wearing masks, there's not many people on streets, and it's becoming a real issue right across North East Asia. This is fine particulate pollution. Nasty stuff. It comes from cars and power stations and other heavy industry. And it's becoming a big health problem. I'll be glad to get to the coast to breathe some fresh air and to see some seaweed. I think our climate's future might depend on growing it big scale.
Scientists think there might be a place to store such huge quantities of seaweed carbon that global warming could be rolled back. There's one big idea behind my seaweed quest - and that is that under certain circumstances, seaweed can store carbon at a bigger scale and more permanently than any plant you can see out there.
So we're on the Land at the moment but the ocean is very very deep. Any carbon that plants capture in this area here —just keeps on interchanging, with the atmosphere over time. Trees grow then they die and rot — the carbon stays in the system.
But if you could somehow grow seaweed out here — on rafts maybe or some other way —and then use seaweed for something, and toss the carbon into deep - or just put the seaweed itself into the deep ocean — once it gets down below a kilometre — that carbon isn't coming back. That's stored, not as permanently as geological carbon like coal, but as far as we're concerned with the climate crisis — It's out of the system.
Half the planet is covered in oceans three kilometres deep or more - It's potentially a huge carbon store - But the amount of seaweed needed to take advantage of it suggests a seaweed industry that's beyond my imagination. So that's why I'm on my way to the biggest seaweed industry event in the world. It's being hosted far in the South, on the Island of Wando. And their International Seaweed Expo is Like nothing I could have imagined. One hundred and fifty countries have sent delegations. Half a million people have been through the gates.
This is just amazing — this expo has taken over the town. At a cost of ten million dollars this expo is a serious investment in seaweed - backed by the top end of town.
GOVERNOR: [TRANSLATED FROM KOREAN] This Expo... will not only contribute to a proper understanding of seaweeds but also promote their significance as an industry of the future.
PROF. TIM FLANNERY: And seaweed's future is what I've come to see. This is the big one — this is the one that might just save the world. There's evidence of seaweed innovations Like seaweed bioplastics, and materials, even signs of seaweed biofuels. I meet an entrepreneur, who wants to save forests by making paper from seaweed.
HACK CHURL YOU: We have to change the way we make paper from wood - So seaweed pulp can help prevent global warming.
PROF. TIM FLANNERY: Fantastic - Wow. Here's a whole house made of seaweed — It's an experimental one, but I tell you, It's pretty impressive! This expo is proof the global seaweed industry is innovating. And not all these will take off. We've got toothpaste as well - You want white teeth? Use seaweed! So many products. Very good. Thank you.
But the powerhouse driving all this innovation in the seaweed industry, is a multi billion dollar food business. It's good to see scale and innovation - both will be needed if we're going to store carbon in the deep ocean. Kamsa hamnida... Thank you... I don't know what sort of seaweed it is but it's pretty bloody good.
But feeding this industry must be big scale seaweed farming - And I want to find it. The island of Wando is just one of hundreds of Islands in an archipelago clustered around the Southern foot of Korea - and they produce a million tons of seaweed a year.
And I shouldn't have to go far to find it. I understand at the top of this hill — is the very best place to see Wando's famous seaweed farms - and I'm really keen to get a Look because I think it's like Looking into the future. I'm Looking for the kind of scale that could fill a million square kilometres with seaweed farms. Wow - The scale of this is almost unbelievable. As far as I can see to the horizon, there's seaweed farms. The scale of seaweed farming here is really astonishing. As far as I can see there are Little buoys where the seaweed hangs from.
Suspended from these buoys are tens of thousands of metres of rope, all growing seaweeds in the sun. Is this the seaweed farming system that could roll out across the world's oceans to help reverse climate change? To Learn the secrets of growing seaweed big scale, I've come to meet Korea's Leading authority on seaweed - Professor 1k Kyo Chung.
TIM: Oh, hello — Professor Chung... Yeah, good to see you... Thank you.. Good.. So is this our boat
CHUNG: Yeah.
TIM: And we have to hurry. The seaweed boat is Leaving, and I want to be on it. It seems to me that seaweed farming has been part of Korean culture for a very Long time.
CHUNG: Yes, very Long time.... we have a Long history.
TIM: Hundreds of years? Or .
CHUNG: More than that, I think.
TIM: Really? Wow, okay. It seems to me as ...the country has developed a really deep expertise in seaweed growing and genetics... Is it well advanced, that knowledge here?
CHUNG: Yeah. Yeah, that's right.
TIM: Well, Looking at this vast field of seaweed here —
CHUNG: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
TIM: You're obviously growing Large amounts. It's what I hoped to find. This is commercial scale seaweed farming. The equipment, the experience, its all here - and so is the seaweed. These farmers are growing a species of kelp, called Laminaria - and it grows very fast. Oh, Look at this stuff, mate. How, how Long has this been growing?
CHUNG: I think just one, one season.
TIM: One season? Wow. So just through the winter?
CHUNG: Yeah, through the winter.
TIM: That's a huge growth. Wow. On just one Line is two tonnes of Laminaria - nearly a third of which is carbon - there's maybe two thirds of ton of carbon right in front of me. I can taste it!
CHUNG: It's just a Little salty.
TIM: Oh yeah, it's good though. It's nice. Chung has researched how much carbon seaweed can store - Just a hundred square metres of seaweed can capture 16 tonnes of carbon a year. That's a crucial number, and a very encouraging one. But because seaweeds don't Live for as Long as trees, they've not been accepted as carbon storage solutions. So you've done the basic science, but is there anyone being paid for sequestering carbon in seaweed?
CHUNG: No, not yet. Everyone wants to do some terrestrial environment Like trees, those kind of things.
TIM: Yeah.
CHUNG: - And you can see the trees and the carbon that's there, but seaweed you cannot see.
TIM: So theyre not looking at deep ocean sequestration?
CHUNG: No not yet - seaweed cannot grow in open sea, because of the Lack of nutrients. Offshore is Like a desert. I think that idea comes from you. (Laughs).
PROF. TIM FLANNERY: Well, I'm keen on the idea of open ocean seaweed farming, and I know people are working on it - and seeing this massive farm makes me think it might be possible. But this visit has highlighted a problem. AIL the seaweed growing around me feeds off nutrients that wash off the Land, Like they were at Magnetic Island - It's a coastal phenomenon. Seaweeds need to be close to the surface, where there's sunlight- but in the open ocean the nutrients are down too deep for the seaweeds to reach. So, If we are going to try to sink
Lots of carbon with ocean based farms - we need to find them the nutrients... And I need to find someone who's working on that part of the problem.
CHUNG: It's a sea vegetable!
TIM: A seaweed breakfast?
CHUNG: Yeah, that's right.
TIM: It's very nice.
CHUNG: That's what we have
TIM: I think I'm becoming Korean!
TIM and CHUNG: (Laughs)
PROF. TIM FLANNERY: Chung has researched how much carbon seaweed can store - Just a hundred square metres of seaweed can capture 16 tonnes of carbon a year. That's a crucial number, and a very encouraging one. But because seaweeds don't Live for as Long as trees, they've not been accepted as carbon storage solutions.
TIM: So you've done the basic science, but is there anyone being paid for sequestering carbon in
CHUNG: No, not yet. Everyone wants to do some terrestrial environment Like trees, those kind of things.
TIM: Yeah.
CHUNG: And you can see the trees and the carbon that's there, but seaweed you cannot see.
TIM: So theyre not Looking at deep ocean sequestration?
CHUNG: No not yet - seaweed cannot grow in open sea, because of the Lack of nutrients. Offshore is Like a desert. I think that idea comes from you. (Laughs).
PROF. TIM FLANNERY: Well, I'm keen on the idea of open ocean seaweed farming, and I know people are working on it - and seeing this massive farm makes me think it might be possible. But this visit has highlighted a problem. AIL the seaweed growing around me feeds off nutrients that wash off the Land, Like they were at Magnetic Island - It's a coastal phenomenon. Seaweeds need to be close to the surface, where there's sunlight- but in the open ocean the nutrients are down too deep for the seaweeds to reach. So, If we are going to try to sink Lots of carbon with ocean based farms - we need to find them the nutrients. And I need to find someone who's working on that part of the problem. But much of the seaweed expo is impressive - - all this money and enterprise is driving real innovation.
It's got me thinking - what's something useful we could make with seaweed that could store carbon Long term? The more carbon we take out of the atmosphere, the better... Time to get some help.
DR. ADAM BUMPUS: Hello?
TIM: Hi Adam. Tim Flannery here.
ADAM: Hi Tim mate, how are you?
TIM: I'm very well thank you. I'm wondering if you can help me with something? I need someone to make me some seaweed bricks —
ADAM: Yeah, okay... I don't see why not.
PROF. TIM FLANNERY: Now we use billions of bricks every year - but a seaweed brick could store carbon drawn out of the atmosphere.
ADAM: ...With this stuff we're trying to build something we really Like.
PROF. TIM FLANNERY: Dr Adam Bumpus is an expert in carbon economics and innovation. He's found a team with expertise in creating new building products from natural materials. These are bricks that need no energy to fire them, and no cement to stick them together!
ADAM: Number 1 bricks... We can have them interlocking... A — there's a kind of paste...and B — PROF. TIM FLANNERY: By adding seaweed to those products I hope they can store carbon in such a way that it won't return to the atmosphere for a Long time - Its out of harm's way. But it means turning squishy seaweed into a rock hard brick.
ADAM: I've got some seaweed here that I got from the beach.
RACKEL: Oh wow.
ADAM: Have a whiff!
PROF. TIM FLANNERY: And I'm sure that won't be easy.
RACKEL: That's interesting material.
ADAM: Can we turn this into a brick do you think?
PROF. TIM FLANNERY: Dr Racket San Nicolas and Engineering Student Phil are hard at work - in the Geopolymers Lab. They'll need to find a way to keep the seaweed dry and stable, so it can become a sturdy part of the brick.
PHIL: Let's check out our hemp seaweed sample we made — Now that's held together quite nicely — That took very Little effort, (laughs), at all, to make that crumble — this one's a fail.
PROF. TIM FLANNERY: I never underestimate human beings chasing a goal under pressure - but I fear I've set a challenge here that's close to impossible.
PROF. TIM FLANNERY: Back in Australia, I'm Looking for a way to grow seaweed on the scale I saw in Korea, but way out in the ocean. Because to draw down enough carbon dioxide to roll back global warming, it would have to be grown on a huge scale.
Prof Chung has given me some pretty conservative estimates of seaweed crop yields. And using those, I can estimate that if you wanted to draw down a gigatonne of carbon, plant a seaweed farm size of south Australia, it would be a million square kilometres. If you wanted to offset all of human emissions - so draw down all the carbon we're putting in the atmosphere - you'd need a seaweed farm the size of Asia - that'd be 9% of the world's ocean, covered in seaweed farm. I don't think I'm going to see that in my Lifetime. But I do think it's realistic to think of covering 1% of the world's ocean in seaweed farms — and if we did that, we'd be pulling down 5 gigtonnes of carbon a year - and that would be an enormous help in terms of addressing climate change. Every year we put about 50 gigatonnes, that's 50 billion tons - of carbon dioxide or equivalent into the atmosphere, where it causes climate change. But seaweed can draw this carbon out of the atmosphere. Five gigatonnes would make a noticeable difference. Twenty would make a big one - but if seaweeds are going to help, we need to grow them in the open ocean. And there's a snag - seaweeds photosynthesise, using the sun's energy. But they also need nutrients - and in the open ocean the nutrients are down too deep for the seaweeds to reach them.
Growing seaweed in the ocean will take great feats of marine engineering - but scientists and engineers are starting to work on the problem.
I've just come across this extraordinary proposal — funded in part by the Australian federal government — and it concerns the development of what's called a Marine Permaculture Array, in the Indian ocean. Now, that array will consist of a 100m square grid, that will be used to grow seaweed and other seafood.
What's amazing about it is it'll be operating in deep ocean - it won't be tethered to the bottom it will be guided by satellites — and out there in the deep ocean, there's no seaweed growing now because there's no nutrients. So whoever has put this together has found a way to access those deep nutrients and feed the seaweeds in these permaculture arrays.
To find out just how they're pulling up the nutrients I'm speaking to the man behind the plan eco-entrepreneur Dr Brian von Herzen.
DR BRIAN HERZEN: On our marine permaculture we run a Long pipe down several hundred metres into the sea, where, that's where the nutrients are, and we pump them up to the seaweed with a combination of wind and wave and solar power.
We're estimating that for an investment of around five million dollars, we can see a potential for yields of one million for the kelp biomass and another million every year for the fish.
TIM: Wow, fantastic — and tell me, how Long is it going to take to get this operational?
BRIAN: Well, we're expecting the system to be operational Later this year. We're testing the hardware out this summer in Wood's Hole Massachusetts, and we're hoping to deploy systems next year in Australia with further support.
TIM: Wow, so the first one is only a few months off! That's amazing.
BRIAN: Well thank you so much
TIM: Yeh, and you know, I really think that you're onto something very fundamental here, and it's something very big. So, congratulations — I can hardly wait to see how it develops.
BRIAN: Thank you , Tim!
PROF. TIM FLANNERY: I'll be interested to see how Brian's technology copes in the open ocean and whether it can deliver a result. Brian believes his array should scale up to seaweed farms a square kilometre in size - and to draw down a billion tonnes of carbon from the atmosphere every year, you'd need a million of those farms floating in the world's oceans, growing fish and capturing carbon.
It'll be ambitious, challenging and certainly expensive. And this plan makes one big assumption - That all the seaweed will sink to the ocean bottom where it stays out of harm's way.
I'm meeting a scientist with doubts - An expert in how carbon is stored — not in the ocean, but in wetlands - and he's not sure the deep ocean will so easily store the carbon from seaweed sometimes called macroalgae. How do you feel about this opportunity — the potential opportunity for seaweed farming — If we take this seaweed into the deep ocean — Is that carbon going to stay there effectively forever?
PETER: I've got- I've got some reservations admittedly. Does it end up in- going into the sediments and does it end up getting preserved in those sediments? I think that's the big research gap.
TIM: Right.
PETER: I want to see some research and data that we see that macroalgae end up in those deep sea areas but does something munch it up?
TIM: Fair enough.
PROF. TIM FLANNERY: If seaweed is munched up before it gets to the deep ocean its carbon can return to the atmosphere. So it needs to reach the deep ocean fast, or be buried in ocean sediments, where it's safe from the microbes that munch it up. Sediments are a natural carbon store - and Peter shows me how they work - in mangrove mud.
PETER: The Microbes just can't really attack the carbon, so it's the perfect place to store our carbon.
TIM: And the bottom of the core here - how old do you think this is?
PETE: Look — If we have 1 centimetre per year of accretion - let's say that's about 60 centimetres — maybe 60 years old? — About that.
TIM: So that carbon has really be stored here safely, for as Long as I've been alive anyway.
PETE: That's right.
TIM: Well that is very convincing.
PROF. TIM FLANNERY: In this mangrove mud it's too cold, and there's not enough oxygen for the microbes to munch up the carbon stored here.
PETER: These ecosystems will store the carbon in the ground for thousands of years - they retire it from the carbon cycle - grabbing it out of the atmosphere and putting it in the ground - it's a watery grave and it'll stay there.
PROF. TIM FLANNERY: Mangroves are clearly a great place to store carbon - but they are relatively few in number. To store all the carbon we need to draw out of the atmosphere, something much bigger is needed - So can the deep oceans do it? The answers won't come easily. The deep ocean is more alien than anything on Earth.
But if seaweed gets into the deep ocean there should be evidence of it - One team has scoured deep sea surveys around the world and they think there is evidence.
DR DORTE KRAUS-JENSEN: And we were surprised to find many records of seaweeds in the deep ocean on the deep sea floor, several thousand meters down. So not only are they able to be exported there, but they are also really fast — since they're not decomposed before getting there. That's deeper than 1 kilometre - then we talk about it being sequestered for considerable timescales, Like several centuries.
TIM: Wow really really exciting! That's fantastic Dorte!
PROF. TIM FLANNERY: Dorte thinks that one hundred and seventy three million tonnes of seaweed carbon is naturally sequestered in ocean sediment every year — ninety percent in the deep oceans.
Dorte's study is showing that Lots of coastal seaweed is already finding its way into the deep ocean, and that the carbon in that seaweed is staying down there, out of the atmospheric carbon cycle . i guess the big thing we don't know is if we do this on an industrial scale, and grow seaweed farms that are transporting Lots of seaweed into the deep oceans what the consequence of that will be - we won't know till we try it I guess.
Ultimately both mangrove wetlands and the deep sea will be needed to store the carbon we must draw out of the atmosphere. And I'm not done with seaweed. I've set a challenge to find out if it might be possible, to store its carbon in the houses and cities of tomorrow.
I want to find out if the idea of seaweed bricks is a real possibility - or a slimy dead end. Us humans are just beginning our seaweed journey — but I'm nearing the end of mine. I'm here to meet Adam Bumpus and see how he's going with his seaweed bricks!
I wanted Adam and his team to see if they could create an entirely new way to use seaweed I'm hoping it could be the foundation of a new industry - If they've made it work.
TIM: Hey Adam
ADAM: Hey Tim
TIM: Great to see you again.
ADAM: You too. How are you?
TIM: Good thank you, good. I must say, you've kept me in suspense about the bricks.
ADAM: Yeah. So, to be honest, we've had some issues with the bricks... I've got to be honest. TIM: Right.
ADAM: We've found some stuff that is really exciting — and that's what I'd Love to show you today.
PROF. TIM FLANNERY: Seaweed isn't a promising material to turn into a brick. So, what have we got here Racket?
RACKEL: So, um, it's actually very, very interesting.
TIM: So, is this your experiment?
RACKEL: Exactly so that's completely a failure - but what we are very happy about is we found why... This seaweed apparently is extremely expandable. So as soon as we are putting it into contact with any type of solution, the solution that is inside the usual concrete it expands.
TIM: Yes.
RACKEL: And so.
PROF. TIM FLANNERY: Dr San Nicolas tested all geopolymer concrete solutions - could one stop seaweed expanding?
RAKEL: But we move onto actually the big discovery of these past two days. (Laughs).
TIM: Yes.
PHIL: Tadah! (Laughs).
RAKEL: It's actually in this solution.
TIM: Right. RACKEL: Potassium silicate and potassium hydroxide. In this case you've got very, very Little expansion.
TIM: Yes indeed. Yeah, yeah.
RACKEL: Compared to the other one. SO, we end up with this wonderful product.
TIM: Oh now, now that's much more Like it. So, this is a building material.
RAKEL: I truly believe so.
TIM: That is great.
RACKEL: We can do structural — (Fades out)
PROF. TIM FLANNERY: Australia alone uses 1 billion bricks and millions of tonnes of concrete a year. If the world could replace a fraction of its bricks and concrete with a material that's cement-free, Low-energy, and a safe storehouse for carbon - maybe what I've seen here today is another way seaweed can help save the world.
And I'm interested to know whether Adam's design team see these bricks as a viable alternative for the building industry.
HENRY: Texture's bloody great - bit of playfulness to it - you know. And not only that, it can be smoothed out as well, so we can get other texture. So it's a really, um, flexible, kind of item and material
PHIL: And that can be polished too, can't it Racket?
RACKEL: Yeah.
PHIL: Bit of shine to it.
RACKEL: Yeah.
JAY: Looking at it, I'm quite amazed by how it Looks actually [laughs], so it will be really interesting to see how the tests go with it all and um, yeah, if it-if it can get the same strength ratings as bricks, I cant see why the-what the Limitations to this material would be.
ANA: Sustainability is something that is on the agenda.
TIM: Yeah, right.
ANA: We have the responsibility to-to actually tell the client, you know what, this exists. And we could use it. And these are the benefits'.
TIM: Ok, great. And perhaps this is how we push back against climate change - brick by brick. I've taken this journey to find out if this humble weed could save the planet.
ROCKY: Oh, there we go - that's a healthy Looking specimen. TIM: That's a beautiful fish, isn't it ROCKY: Terrific, isnt it.
TIM: Wow. I've seen how we could be feeding the world on protein from seafood farmed with the help of seaweed. So what volume can you put through this plant? How seaweed could help clean up polluted water. A million Litres a day?
ROCKY: A million Litres a day. Yeah.
TIM: Go through this!?
ROCKY: Yes.
TIM: How seaweed carbon can be stored in biochar. Look at that! Beautiful stuff there. And could help reduce greenhouse gas emissions from cattle.
ROCKY: If you can feed seaweed to cows and they reduce their production of methane. And the many unlikely things it could be used to create.
PIA: Look at this one — It's just like Leather.
TIM: So, this is a building material.
RACKEL: It is a building material.
TIM: But I've been most excited by the potential to grow seaweed, to slow climate change, by absorbing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere in huge open ocean farm. Wow - the scale of this almost unbelievable! I think these technologies hint at solutions our world needs - but how much might they help?
ADAM: So Tlm, you've been all over the world, Looking at this stuff — TIM: Yes. But I'd Like to know what it all adds up to?
ADAM: So you want ot get some numbers down?
TIM: We do, yeah.
ADAM: Well, why don't we pop in here?
TIM: Great.
ADAM: See if we can find a room, and we'll get it down.
PROF. TIM FLANNERY: Adam is a carbon economy and innovation expert. We can't be exact, but some estimates will help gage the potential of the technologies I've seen.
TIM: So Adam, Lets see if we can get some figures around these areas, to see how much carbon we could sequester, from seaweed?
ADAM: Yeah, good call. Well, here's an interesting one for protein. It seems Like, if people change their diets, potentially, we could actually, use sustainable fish, associated with these seaweed farms, that could produce around about 11.8-ish gigatonnes of savings per year.
TIM: That is a massive number, Adam. ADAM: That's a big number TIM: Huge.
ADAM: But this is assuming that 9 billion people on Earth, each eat 200 kilograms of fish a year.
TIM: Right.
ADAM: That's a lot.
TIM: Yes.
ADAM: So probably, it's going to be quite a bit Less than that. So why don't we say, maybe, it's going to be a third of that.
TIM: Alright.
ADAM: You know, 3.
TIM: 3 — yeah.
ADAM: 3 gigatonnes per year.
TIM: So we're then Looking at feedstock.
ADAM: Absolutely.
TIM: And some of the figures I've seen are huge.
ADAM: It seems like something, around about, 2.4 gigatonnes per year TIM: So these are very big savings, Adam — ADAM: Yes.
TIM: Much bigger than I was thinking we'd be getting. ADAM: If all of the cattle in the world ate a bit of seaweed...
TIM: That's encouraging I think.
ADAM: It could be good, yeah.
TIM: So the other area we are Looking at was biochar.
ADAM: It is incredibly promising, because it's not just sequestering the carbon —It's also helping productivity and nutrients.
TIM: I wouldn't be adverse to a sort of, very, very rounded preliminary figure of, 1 (Laughs).
ADAM: Alright, well let's speak in 1 gigatonne.
TIM: Alright. So the other thing we saw is of course the manufacture of plastics, clothing — and what sort of figures do you think we are Looking at for that?
ADAM: Plastics and clothing — It's difficult to understand, but of course .. we also...don't have to use oil for that plastics and the clothing, so there's a Lot of saving there. It's not just the sequestering of it — It's the supplanting of these emissions that we have right now... Why don't we stick on a gigatonne for each?
TIM: That's reasonable. I think that's good. ADAM: Okay, Lets do that.
TIM: And finally — this issue of storage, which I think is one of the big ones... If we can sink the seaweed down below, a kilometre in the ocean — it's stored permanently. ADAM: What was it — 9% of the ocean can store? —
TIM: That's right. If you cover 9% of the world's ocean in seaweed farms, you could offset all of current emissions - so 53 gigatonnes, potentially, which is big.
ADAM: That's a Lot! I mean, that's everything we emit right now — TIM: Yeah exactly.
ADAM: It's amazing. But it's also a huge amount of Landmass, or ocean mass.
TIM: It's a seaweed farm the size of Asia.
ADAM: Huge.
TIM: It's really big (Laughs).
ADAM: Right.
TIM: Even if we took a tenth of that - okay, so a tenth, that would be ambitious — but a tenth is still 5 gigatonne, huh —
ADAM: Let's put that down
TIM: Give it a go. Okay. So what do we get there? We've got 5, 6, 7, 8, 10.4— 13.4 gigatonnes. Of course 13 billion tonnes is just an estimate — but if this were possible, then it WOULD have an impact on climate change.
ADAM: This is not an impossible task. TIM: No.
ADAM: This is real. It can happen now.
TIM: Biodegradable plastics from seaweed, new feedstocks — you know, this is a big future.
ADAM: Yeah, this is exciting.
TIM: Right. Let's get to work.
ADAM: (Laughs). Absolutely, thanks Tim.
TIM: Some of these are more Likely to bare fruit than others, but scaling up any of these concepts will require billions in investment. But when transformative new ideas grip the world, the changes they create can happen quickly, and sweep old technologies into the dust bin of history. We humans are really intelligent — And sometimes it seems to me, we can do almost anything. When it comes to climate change and seaweed — I think we're really onto something. My Last stop is the most personal of all.
Dr Alicia Felgrove is a seaweed scientist who is developing a project to farm seaweed, right here, in Melbourne's Port Philip Bay. It's where I grew up — And I hope to see it once again, the flourishing habitat, I remember as a child. You know this place used to be my playground as a kid.
DR ALECIA FELGROVE: Well there a huge possibility. So we need to think carefully about where we're going to be farming the seaweeds, what we're going to do with those seaweeds once we harvest them from the farms... My concern is an ecologist and someone that's also really excited about the prospects that seaweed farming can bring, is that we need to, just, tread cautiously — and we can often go into things hammer and tongs, before we understand fully how these systems work.
PROF. TIM FLANNERY: Ocean farms, are, yet to be testing, but I feel Like they present a big opportunity for Australia — Especially as our seaweed stocks are so rich.
ALECIA: So we're sitting in a part of the world that is got the highest biodiversity - so this is a hotspot of biodiversity for seaweeds. There's more seaweeds in South-Eastern Australia than there is in any other part of the world. So the potential is huge. The understanding of what we've got is very small.
TIM: Would you be surprised if, within, 500m of us, there was a species of seaweed that hasnt been discovered yet?
ALECIA: Not at all.
TIM: So just projecting out 50 years — How important do you think these seaweeds, growing within a kilometre of us, are going to be?
ALECIA: I think they will have HUGE potential to be part of our food security solutions.
TIM: Sounds to me as if we have a national treasure here.
ALECIA: Absolutely.
PROF. TIM FLANNERY: When I think about what wonders might be found in Australia's seaweed treasure trove, it brings me a Lot of hope. The age of seaweed may be upon us, and I cant wait to see these solutions, start to unfold.