A future where people and nature coexist

Although algae has many interesting and useful characteristics, our project approaches this topic from two directions. First is to promote the use of biomass fuel created from algae in order to reduce CO₂. Second is to recover seaweed beds in order to restore ocean environments. Recovering seaweed beds will help increase the amount of CO₂ absorbed in the ocean (blue carbon). Seventy percent of the earth is covered in ocean, and we can use this massive area as a "field" for absorbing CO₂. Algae plays a crucial role in the absorption of CO₂ by the ocean. With time, algae travels to the depths of the ocean where few microbes live, allowing it to continue to hold CO₂ for thousands of years. We hope to take advantage of these characteristics of algae in order to create a future where people and nature coexist.

We are currently engaged in two unique initiatives related to our two approaches toward using algae. Our first initiative is to reduce the cost of biomass fuel created from algae. Algae is said to be the most efficient of biomass fuels, but the extremely high cost of production has stalled efforts to promote its use. Our goal for this project is to develop proprietary processes to efficiently grow algae, in order to reduce costs. Reducing the cost of biomass fuel created from efficient algae is especially important for the airline industry, which emits an enormous amount of CO₂ and is hopeful for an alternative to fossil fuels to be developed. Our second initiative is to develop underwater CO₂ sensors that can easily measure how much CO₂ is being absorbed in the ocean. We aim to establish accurate and simple evaluation methods, by developing sensors that are even smaller, lighter, and simpler that the sensors being used today. This will help to visualize results, which can help conserve and recover the seaweed beds that absorb CO₂ in the ocean.