Renewable Energy From Algae?

Ravalox writes "With alternate fuel becoming a fairly hot trend in recent months, some academics may have applied their theoretical know-how to give us a practical solution. They offer up the idea that certain types of algae are well-suited to biodiesel production as they are nearly 50 percent oil. The article speculates that large pools could be created to farm out biodiesel from algae in areas near waste streams and salt water. They postulate that to replace our fossil fuel usage it would take only a total of a little over ten thousand square miles, which could fit in an area like the Sonora Desert."

Comments

Got life insurance?

[Anonymous Coward]

If this is true, I expect these guys will be involved in a "tragic fatal accident". *cough* Shell *cough* Imperial.

I wish them luck

Re:Got life insurance?

[cshark]

Anyone remember KnightRider 2000? They postulated the same thing in the beginning of the movie. They also said it would cause the cost of oil to go down to nothing. Only they predicted Dan Quale would be president. So much for the nostradomous theory. Heh heh.

Alge grows in the desert?

[NoDoZ]

Alge grows in the desert?

just a little genetic engineering

[morcheeba]

Mix that algae with vinger-producing algae, and then splice these into lettuce. You'll have a salad that dresses itself!

Finally

[mysterious_mark]

My swamp land will make me rich!

come over to my house

[ForestGrump]

my pool is green.

-Grump

Re:Hey!

[irokitt]

I would be more than happy to donate my pool to the world's energy supply. Damn thing's too hard to clean anyway.

Re:Contamination

[cft_128]

In fact, algae might be a way to re-sequester some of that carbon, by growing large masses of algae then simply burying it deep, somewhere where it will not decay and release CO2 again.

This also has a cool side benefit - now our descendants 100 million years from now can have their own fossil fuels, conveniently stored underground for them by us!