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Scientists in Barbados are turning invasive sargassum into biomethane that could be used as vehicle fuel—but the project has not shown a conventional gasoline car running on seaweed gas. A bio-CNG pilot launched in 2024 used an electric car supplied for the demonstration, according to CARICOM. The distinction matters: making a potential fuel, demonstrating a vehicle project and proving a combustion car can run on that fuel are different milestones.
How the Barbados project turns sargassum into potential vehicle fuel
The Barbados work, led by mechanical engineer Legena Henry of the University of the West Indies Cave Hill and CEO of Rum & Sargassum, combines coastal sargassum with wastewater from rum distilleries. A 2021 Inter-American Development Bank technical note describes experiments producing biomethane from those materials and discusses compressed natural gas (CNG) vehicles as a possible use for the gas. Read the IDB technical note.
The concept links a coastal nuisance to a usable energy stream and a residue that may support agriculture. As Henry put it in CARICOM’s account of the project, “the digestate feeds the land, but the gas fuels cars.” The gas is biomethane; it is not raw seaweed poured into a fuel tank.
What happened at the 2024 vehicle pilot
In mid-September 2024, Rum & Sargassum and UWI Cave Hill launched a bio-CNG vehicle pilot. CARICOM reported that the Caribbean Centre for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency (CCREEE) provided its electric car for the test drive. That account supports describing the event as a bio-CNG pilot involving an EV—not as a demonstration of an internal-combustion car running on sargassum-derived gas. CARICOM’s announcement.
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The CARICOM release also described plans for a biogas station and mentioned a small station at Guinea Estate. It does not establish a public consumer refuelling network or confirm that a station is currently operating. A September 2024 report by the Caribbean Broadcasting Corporation likewise characterized the work as a pilot and said filling stations were expected in the future; that was a projection made at the time, not a current status update. CBC’s 2024 report.
Can a regular gasoline car be converted to use the gas?
Biomethane can be used as CNG vehicle fuel in principle, and a secondary article reproducing excerpts from BBC coverage attributes to the project team a claim that cars could be converted using a CNG kit. That is not the same as verifying a kit for sale or showing that a particular car can safely and legally use this project’s fuel. The secondary report also repeats claims of a kit costing about US$2,500 and taking four hours to install; those are dated, attributed figures, not verified current prices or installation guidance.
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Before treating a conversion as practical, a vehicle owner would need to confirm the vehicle’s compatibility, the conversion system’s certification, local regulatory approval, fuel specifications and a reliable source of fuel. The available accounts do not verify a current consumer kit offer, installation specification, vehicle-by-vehicle compatibility, applicable fuel-quality standard or regulatory approval. Do not assume that a generic CNG kit is suitable for this gas or any particular car.
How the Barbados project differs from a seaweed-fuel car in Denmark
A separate Danish demonstration gives a clearer example of a car driving on fuel that contained seaweed-derived biofuel. Wageningen Food & Biobased Research produced biobutanol from seaweed sugars as part of the EU Horizon 2020 MacroFuels project. Wageningen University & Research reports that a passenger car drove 80 kilometres on a blend containing that biofuel in 2019. The demonstration used a different conversion route and fuel from the Barbados biomethane work. Wageningen’s project record.
| Project | Feedstock and conversion | Fuel and vehicle result | What the evidence establishes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Barbados | Coastal sargassum combined with rum-distillery wastewater; anaerobic digestion produces biomethane. | Bio-CNG vehicle pilot launched in 2024; CARICOM says the test-drive vehicle was an electric car supplied by CCREEE. | A biomethane project and pilot launch, not a demonstrated conventional engine car running on the gas. |
| Denmark | Seaweed sugars processed into biobutanol through the MacroFuels project. | In 2019, a passenger car drove 80 kilometres on a blend containing seaweed-derived biofuel. | A distinct demonstration of a fuel blend containing seaweed-derived biobutanol; it does not validate the Barbados process or vehicle conversion. |
Seaweed biofuel research is not all at the same stage
Other seaweed projects address the upstream work needed to make fuel practical at scale, rather than demonstrating a finished vehicle fuel in ordinary use. In 2017, the U.S. Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory described MARINER research into cultivation and modeling technologies needed before seaweed could fuel cars. Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution’s 2017 account focused on sugar-kelp breeding, offshore farming and monitoring, with biofuel identified as a possible future market. PNNL on MARINER and WHOI on kelp research.
A 2022 National Renewable Energy Laboratory feature described another distinct proposal: combining Caribbean sargassum and wood waste to make sustainable aviation fuel and graphite. Its figures concern modeled resource and product potential, not fuel already sold to drivers or a car demonstration. NREL’s feature.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What the project’s impact figures do—and do not—mean
- About US$2 million per year: In a 2024 Nature interview, Henry cited this as the amount one tourist resort spent removing sargassum from its beach. It is an attributed example, not a Barbados-wide or island-wide total. Nature’s interview.
- Up to 1 million metric tons of CO₂ per year: The IDB technical note presents this as a conditional estimate of what an alternative combustion method might avoid if successfully implemented in Barbados. It is not a measured reduction from an operating vehicle fleet.
- About US$2,500 and four hours: These are dated claims repeated by secondary coverage about a CNG conversion kit, not verified current costs, installation times or evidence that a suitable kit is available.
Henry told Nature, “There is a sargassum seaweed crisis in Barbados.” The promise of turning some of that material into useful products is compelling, but a pilot launch does not by itself establish commercial scale, routine public fuelling, or achieved emissions savings.
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