Sargassum Biorefinery Project Advances in Mexico

Mexico — Facing 40 million tons of sargassum threatening Caribbean coasts, Mexican scientists are scaling a process to extract high-value products. The project addresses two economic limitations of sargassum utilization: high heavy metal content and a complex structure that increases transformation costs.

“We developed a process that precisely targets these two points to make its utilization more profitable and effective,” said a researcher. In a first stage, alginate is extracted, a polymer with an established market in the food and pharmaceutical industries. “From one kilogram of sargassum, we can generate half a kilogram of this residue.”

“We use that residue to generate a biofuel, which is biogas, and it can be used to generate electrical energy,” they affirmed. The byproduct of anaerobic digestion, a nutrient-rich sludge, would be marketed as a soil enhancer or biofertilizer, closing the cycle without waste.

Development of Biomaterials

Parallelly, progress is being made in developing biomaterials with potential to substitute imports or conventional raw materials. “We are working with sheets made with 40% sargassum, 60% recycled plastic,” with possible applications in sectors like construction or packaging.

The economic viability of the model depends on overcoming a logistical challenge given the seasonality of the raw material. “During peaks with massive arrivals, there can be up to 60,000 tons of sargassum in a single day. There is sufficient raw material, but logistics must be organized to store it throughout the year and use it consistently,” they emphasized, which would imply investments in collection and handling centers.

Technological scaling is already underway. The CICY has “semi-industrialized machinery where we could use 500 kg of sargassum daily,” and recently secured funding of nearly 5 million pesos from the Secretariat of Science, Humanities, Technology, and Innovation, in the technological maturation call, to scale its process.

This effort is part of a broader initiative involving over 15 institutions from states like Mexico City, Querétaro, Yucatán, and Chihuahua, with economic interest distributed nationally.

The project’s origin dates back to the large-scale arrival of the phenomenon. “We have been working with sargassum for 10 years, practically since it arrived in Quintana Roo. We are very close to the problem,” they explained.

“There are 40 million tons in the sea that will end up on the beaches.”