Food, fuel produced in desert land irrigated by seawater

Food, fuel produced in desert land irrigated by seawater

The SEAS facility uses salt-tolerant halophyte plants that thrive in desert conditions and don't require freshwater or arable land to grow.. Researchers at the institute are exploring ways to improve crop yields and in turn, gaining understanding in cultivation of fish and halophytes.. A research facility - the world's first desert ecosystem, designed to produce sustainable fuel and food in saltwater - is among the latest projects being carried out by Khalifa University's Masdar Institute in Abu Dhabi.. The Seawater Energy and Agriculture System (SEAS), being showcased at the ongoing Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week, is the world's first research facility to grow both food and make fuel using desert land irrigated by seawater.. After wastewater from the fish fertilises the plants, it is diverted into a cultivated mangrove forest.. The groundbreaking project at the Masdar Institute in Abu Dhabi was inaugurated in 2016 in partnership with Khalifa University of Science and Technology, Etihad Airways, Boeing, Adnoc Refining, Safran, GE and Bauer Resources.. Dr Alejandro Rios Galvan, director of Sustainable Bioenergy Research Consortium and Chief of Research Science at Khalifa University, explained that SEAS encompasses three sub-systems. ". "In the system's operation, water is pumped from the sea to supply the