Algae is the fastest growing plant life, and as an organism it converts sunlight into oil, scientists theorize that Algal biofuel can produce a whopping 30 times more energy per acre than any other biofuel option. The US Department of Energy has estimated that if Algal Biofuel replaced all conventional fuel in the country, it would require 15000 square miles of land to harvest the algae… which is roughly one seventh of the area that is used to harvest corn in the US every year. And a diverse group of byproducts, such as neutraceuticals and feedstocks for producing plastics, can be created in algal biofuel operations, making the production more cost effective. But before we start celebrating the great biofuel solution we’ve been looking for, there are a few problems… the biomass for producing a significant amount of algal biofuel just doesn’t exist yet. The algae has to be grown from scratch and harvesting it is very expensive at this point in time. The potential of Algal Biofuel is staggering… but the problem is that, as of now, it’s all just potential. It might be years before the technology catches up to make producing algal biofuel on a large scale possible… but when that time comes, we might be able to finally celebrate a more efficient, renewable, and environmentally friendly energy source. For more information on this exciting and developing technology, check out algalbiomass.Org. I’m Elizabeth Chambers. Check back here for more eco friendly news and tips …
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algae biofuel is the future to fuel cars, trucks, trains, ships, planes, food, & other. Oil and natural gas are in the past. US going be richest once algae biofuel appear in this world as most common fuel. This fuel going replace all different type of fuel. algae biofuel rulez!
i love biomass
better hurry up. Oil is running out… Bush screwed us ALL!!!!
@datzfast when i say funding i mean subsidies and investors, and the rest of your sentence doesnt make sense, please read it and rephrase, so i can get what your saying.
LOL
so is air,
oh, certainly in the next century.
no, if its such a good idea it needs investors not funders, my hunch is the idea while very good is not very good enough. let me explane, if drilling refining oil was a very good idea why is the return on investment so low?
in complete combustion co2 and water are the combustion byproducts.
What is the by product when the Algal biomass fuel is burned? What is the initial energy input?
A problem for doing mass production? Please describe the setback in more detail. The “bio mass does not exist yet”,but algae is the fastest growing organism known? – Does not add up. Is the issue: bio-reactors? Algae genomes not yielding enough oil? We certainly have enough Co2 and engineers. For the next show please interviewing someone at the facilities…I’d love to hear about the dilemma of piping enough algae, optimal pipe diameter for sunlight penetration ,gpm flow.