In addition to being used in the electricity sector, with the generation of biogas, it is also intended to be used in the agricultural and construction sectors.
The sargasso is a new raw material to which the Dominican Republic You can get a lot of use out of it, because if you don’t see it with that interest, every day that goes by and the country is not used, you will be generating waste and losing an opportunity.
This was stated by the coordinator of the Sargassum Interdisciplinary Research Group of the Technological Institute of Santo Domingo (Intec), Ulises Jáuregui, who indicated that in the country, unfortunately, sargassum is treated as solid waste, when it is a raw material of great value.
“Around the world, especially in the area of Asia Y Europe, where there are precedents with other types of algae, it is used, for example, as a high-value raw material for the pharmaceutical industry. In the country we do not yet have the methodology for this type of work, but the universities are investigating”, he said.
Jáuregui acknowledged that the DR has made progress in using it for economic benefit. He specified that apart from being able to be used in the electricity sector, since it is a raw material for obtaining biogas, research is being carried out to be used in the agricultural and construction sectors.
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“We are working to take advantage of the sargassum to develop products for the agribusiness. We are working to develop a liquid biofertilizer and a product for animal feed”, she added after participating in the panel: “Machinery behind the tourism industry”at the Expo Tur 2022 summit.
He also explained that they are working on a project to develop activated carbon from sargassum and the development of ecological blocks and bricks, which seek to replace part of the raw material used in the construction sector.
“The energy issue is very important because of the benefits that sargassum offers and we count on the fact that the Dominican Republic has 11 years of experience in collecting sargassum,” he said.
He reported that the part of obtaining biogas from sargassum has already passed the experimental phase, so that at the moment it is in the design phase of the project for the assembly of an industrial level facility.
“We have a raw material that comes to us every year and that we must be able to use. We have to be able to develop technologies that allow us to use not only sargassum, but to combine it with other biomass,” he said.
The expert acknowledged that the private sector has invested in the sargassum issue, especially in barriers, to prevent its entry.
