Nobel chemist urges Caribbean to turn sargassum crisis into scientific opportunity

A Nobel laureate has urged Caribbean scientists to harness the region’s worsening sargassum crisis as a catalyst for innovation, calling for investment in research that could transform the seaweed threat into new industries in materials, healthcare and cosmetics.

Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the European Union’s newly launched Bridges of Innovation campaign on Friday, chemist Professor Morten Meldal and fellow expert Dr Phaedria Marie St Hilaire underscored the untapped potential of sargassum during a round of engagements ahead of the Connexus 2025 Talk Series.

“There is a lot of opportunity,” Meldal said. “Maybe you can use the coral grounds for a new kind of cement . . . Look at the resources. What are the resources here? What should we look at? And how do we avoid depletion of the resources? The oceans and so on.”

Meldal, who won the 2022 Nobel prize in chemistry, challenged innovators to think beyond the environmental toll of sargassum and instead consider how it could be transformed into valuable products — if supported by the right scientific infrastructure.

“What is required for that?” he asked. “We looked at a water analysis institute in the Food Science Centre yesterday. They could definitely do with a small instrument for mass spectrometry . . . This is not something that necessarily is coming from the revenues of that centre, because the centre is there for public use. So that should also be supported by the public to get that kind of facility which can do exactly what is required to get, maybe even FDA approval . . . for your products in the healthcare sector . . . cosmetics.”

While describing the seaweed’s proliferation as an ecological and economic threat, Professor Meldal insisted the problem also presents an avenue for Caribbean scientists to lead globally in research-based innovation.

“Maybe new methods for dealing with that problem could be available, and, you know, any chemist in Barbados could come up with a suggestion that would surprise and be a new opportunity. But it’s not existing at the moment,” he said.

The Connexus 2025 Talk Series, which officially begins on Saturday at the University of the West Indies at Cave Hill, is being spearheaded by the Delegation of the European Union to Barbados, the OECS and CARICOM/CARIFORUM. The campaign aims to inspire cross-regional collaboration between European experts and Caribbean stakeholders in areas such as science, investment and technology.

Dr Phaedria Marie St Hilaire, a Dominican-born corporate scientist, confirmed that authorities in Barbados are actively exploring sargassum solutions, in partnership with university researchers.

“The ministry in Barbados is looking intensely at it, and they’ve been working with the university researchers to find solutions,” she said. “We’re not really in a position to comment on that right now, but I think the government of Barbados has recognised that it’s a very serious problem, and it’s something that they are working on.”

Dr St Hilaire, who has extensive experience with sustainable chemistry models in Europe, noted that success will depend on combining scientific creativity with sound economics.

She said: “In Denmark, a lot of industries are built on waste material . . . There’s a company that makes apple juice and then uses the mash from the apples to make a kind of leather for clothes. That’s something you could imagine with the sargassum- whether it could be transformed into other materials,” she explained. “But of course, the economics are at play . . . If it’s not a good business case, then it’s not really a good solution.”

She emphasised that a sustainable solution-financially and environmentally-must underpin any response.

“A solution will come. A sustainable solution will come,” she said, adding that the challenge should be tackled as a regional issue: “It’s in Barbados now, but it’s going to spread. So we have to look at it collectively as a Caribbean problem.”

UWI researchers have successfully turned sargassum and other waste products into compressed natural gas and are working to commercialise it in collaboration with the Barbados National Oil Company.

(SZB)