Fish industry waste has been used for fuel production for many years, however the fish is not been caught for energy purposes but for food and other products. The waste or by-product as it is commonly referred to, that is offal, heads, bones etc are crushed and the liquid is separated from the solid therefore separating the fishmeal from the fish oil.
Extracting oil or any other form of energy from the waste of the fishing industry is a fairly sustainable procedure, things get a little tricky however if we start fishing for fuel. Issues of sustainability, ecological footprint and biodiversity come into mind just to mention a few. The Greenland shark, as mentioned in the article on fis.com is native to the cold Arctic waters and is one of the biggest species of sharks, it can be compared to the great white shark.
These sharks are often caught in fishing nets and die, the shark meat together with macro-algae and household wastewater could “serve as biomass for biofuel production.” says Mr. Joergensen, in charge of the pilot project based in the Uummannaq village in northwestern Greenland.
The Arctic Technology Centre (ARTEK) in Sisimiut in western Greenland, is researching and experimenting with ways of using the animal’s oily flesh to produce biogas out of fishing industry waste.
As long as we don’t start fishing sharks for fuel then this is a good thing.
Please reply to this thread if you have any comments
Tony Picclo – Aquatic Biofuels Specialist, Rome – Italy
Aquatic Biofuel Specialist
