[lbo-talk] Prospects for algae biofuels?

[Gar Lipow]

On Mon, Jan 12, 2009 at 11:42 AM, Gar Lipow <the.typo.boy at gmail.com> wrote:
> 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 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 .
>

Oh, and the particular algae used - it turns out that the processes
was a special bioengineered algae grown in the absence of sunlight and
raised on sugar. Which means you lose the whole advantage of deriving
fuel from algae - the the efficiency with which algae converts
sunlight to power. You are indirectly converting corn or sugarcane to
biofuel - with an extra add step of using algae to convert carbs to
fats. Whoops!

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