African Diaspora Ingenuity At Work

A car on the streets of Barbados is running on fuel made from seaweed, rum wastewater and sheep manure. And the gas in its tank is methane, the same molecule as natural gas.

In this video, we break down the Barbadian invention that turns sargassum, the brown seaweed invading Caribbean beaches every year, into bio-CNG. It was developed by Dr Legena Henry and her team at the University of the West Indies, Cave Hill, through the start-up Rum and Sargassum Inc.

We cover why an island that imports almost all of its energy needed a fuel it could make at home, how the record Sargassum Belt became a raw material, and the 240-year-old science behind biogas. We also look at the recipe of sargassum, rum distillery wastewater and Blackbelly sheep manure, the first “Runs on Sargassum” car, the pilot station with the Barbados National Oil Company, and the plans for an 8-megawatt plant. Then we compare Barbados’ approach with Japan’s e-methane.

We also cover the honest side: scale, timelines, cost claims, the challenges of working with sargassum, and whether this could really replace natural gas.

From Bridgetown to Kingston to Port of Spain to Brooklyn, this story could change how the whole Caribbean thinks about fuel.

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