Plant
Algae comprise several different groups of organisms which produce food by photosynthesis and thus have traditionally been included in the plant kingdom. The seaweeds range from large multicellular algae to single-celled organisms and are classified into three groups, the brown, red and green algae. There is good evidence that the brown algae evolved independently from the others, from non-photosynthetic ancestors that formed endosymbiotic relationships with red algae rather than from cyanobacteria, and they are no longer classified as plants as defined here.
Sea6 Energy
Traditionally, algal-based biofuels have been derived from microalgae that grow in fresh water sources. Shrikumar Suryanarayan and the 4 co-founders sought to research the viability of macroalgae (seaweed) as a fuel source. To do this, they needed a way to efficiently farm the seaweed, which led to the creation of a farming system built from a marine plastics polymer. Sea6 Energy successfully applied for a patent for their aquatic farming structure in 2012 (one of their two patents that has been published).