Newest Energy Source — Pond Scum

An anonymous reader writes to tell us that several start up companies include one from MIT are looking at using (both natural and engineered) algae as source of bio-fuel. Since algae grows quickly and absorbs green house gases. From the article "Soybeans can give you 50 to 60 gallons of oil an acre compared to 75 to 125 gallons for canola, but algae is almost limitless because it grows so fast, so potentially you could get 10,000 gallons per acre."

Comments

Potentially, but not practically.

[AnotherBlackHat]

Soybeans can give you 50 to 60 gallons of oil an acre compared to 75 to 125 gallons for canola, but algae is almost limitless because it grows so fast, so potentially you could get 10,000 gallons per acre.

Pardon my bluntness, but reasearching higher yields per hectare is stupid.
Land suitable for algae production is cheap.
What we should be looking into are cheaper ways to harvest, grow, and water it.

Practical algae growth involving cheap materials but lower yields per hectare - think "sea water pumped over plastic tarps".

Algae grown in the outdoors, without CO2 charged water and heating may "only" have 10-20 times higher yields than Canola, instead of 80-130, but so what?
Even at approximately 100 barrels (4200 gallons) per hectare per year, the Great Sandy could grow all the worlds current oil needs twice over.

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