[lbo-talk] Prospects for algae biofuels?

[Gar Lipow]

On Mon, Jan 12, 2009 at 7:02 AM, Dwayne Monroe <dwayne.monroe at gmail.com> wrote:
> <http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/01/09/algae_airliner_test_success/>
>
>
> The world's first test of a passenger airliner partially powered by
> fuel made from algae took place successfully yesterday in Texas.
>
> The Houston Chronicle reports that the jet, an unmodified Boeing
> 737-800 operated by US carrier Continental Airlines, took off from
> Bush Intercontinental airport in Houston at 1218 local time. After a
> series of manoeuvres over the Gulf of Mexico, including a midair
> engine shutdown and restart, the airliner returned to land without
> incident at 1345.
>
> "The airplane performed perfectly," test pilot Rich Jankowski told the
> Chronicle. "There were no problems. It was textbook."
>
> The 737 reportedly burned 3,600lb of biofuel mixed 50-50 with normal
> fossil jetfuel in one engine, and 3,700lb of regular juice in the
> other. According to Jankowski, this indicated that the test fuel was
> actually more efficient than normal supplies.
>
> The biofuel component of the plane's fuel load was derived partly from
> Jatropha nuts and partly from algae. Jatropha plants are able to grow
> in arid regions not suitable for normal crops, and algae can grow on
> water surfaces. This means that both have the potential to be what the
> airline industry calls "second generation" or sustainable biofuels,
> which wouldn't put pressure on finite resources of farmland used for
> food and/or drive deforestation.
>
> Air New Zealand carried out a test using jatropha fuel last month, but
> yesterday's flight was the first to use algae, seen by many in the
> airline industry as a primary way out of the problems posed by carbon
> levies and historically high fuel prices. The Continental test was
> also the first time that a twin-engine passenger jet has flown on
> biofuel. Thus far, the extra reassurance of having three
>

The question was never if fuel made from algae could replace fossil
fuels once made. Processes for turning coal or biomass into fuel
indisguishable from those derived from oil have been know since at
least WWII.  The question was if it could be made sustainably, cheaply
or in large quantities. A test flight doe not answer that. Oh and if
you follow your own link, it has been updated. Less than 3% of the
fuel mix was algae. It was mostly Jatropha - which has its own
problems .