ABSTRACT
Seaweed biomass that differs from terrestrial plant biomass has attracted global attention as a potential bioethanol source. Seaweed poses many advantages over terrestrial biomass sources. Kappaphycus alvarezii (cottonii) is a red seaweed and an important source of carrageenan that has numerous applications in the food and pharmaceutical industries. Since the 1970s, when Eucheuma farming was rst introduced by the late phycologist Maxwell S. Doty, the cultivation of this species has spread throughout Central America, Caribbean, South Pacic, and Southeast Asia. However, thus far, successful commercialization of K. alvarezii has occurred only in Indonesia (Adam and Porse 1987). Currently, the Philippines and Indonesia are the biggest producers of this species. Production of K. alvarezii in Indonesia averages 1,500,000 tons wet weight/year from 1,110,900 ha of potentially cultivatable seaoor (Pambudi et al. 2010).
