A major issue with biofuel farms is that they take up a lot of land that could be used for growing food for our ever-growing population. University of Arizona biologist Robert Glenn, has been researching a possible solution – grow the biofuels in the ocean, where they won’t get in the way of on land food production.

Glenn’s primary research is on Salicornia bigelovii, a plant known as a halophyte. According to Global Seawater, a company that studies possibilities of renewable, ocean-based agriculture, just one acre of Salicornia could yield 90-100 gallons of biodiesel. They are currently experimenting with the technology in Mexico.

Proponents of this form of biofuel production method say that there are hundreds of thousands of underwater square miles that could be used for this sort of sustainability project.