Renewed Interest In Turning Algae Into Fuel Generated

[Eshlemon]

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ScienceDaily (Jan. 19, 2008) — The same brown algae that cover rocks and cause anglers to slip while fly fishing contain oil that can be turned into diesel fuel, says a Montana State University microbiologist.

Soybeans produce about 50 gallons of oil per acre per year, and canola produces about 130, he said. Algae, however, produces about 4,000 gallons per acre a year, and he predicted it will go far beyond that. He said algae requires only sunshine and non-drinkable water to grow. The demonstration pond showed that algae will grow even when temperatures fall below zero.

Twenty years ago, algae looked promising, too, but interest died down as oil prices dropped, Tooke said. Can algal biofuel make it this time around?

"Most certainly," he predicted. "It's beginning to make sense to pursue this again."

Would be especially great to find way to contain the Gulf of Mexico-algae problem as a byproduct of increased corn biofuel. Or just forget corn biofuel altogether and not have to worry about price increases for Corn Flakes, milk, and tortillas.

[cnc66]

the corn and sugar lobbies will try and aquash algae and switchgrass technologies.

[Dolphan7]

It is amazing what we can make out of plants.

[Miamian]

I had been thinking that you could get two-for-one in this case. Algae blooms are a huge problem in many areas, choking out native biota. If they can engineer a machine that could consume the algae while also producing fuel then you solve two problems.