Algae

There was a recent Wall Street Journal article about “5 Technologies that could change everything.” One they included was biofuels from Algae. People have been working on this for a long time including a very long government effort. The great thing about algae is that you can grow it in places and with water sources that are completely unsuitable for farming. Algae can be extremely productive. The problem is that the low capital investment systems are less productive and the highly productive, “bio-reactor” approach has a huge capital cost. The good news is that there are enough companies working away on this that sooner or later there might be a break-through. I won’t pretend to be an expert on how this is going, but I have a hunch it will eventually become significant.

via Rehabilitating Bio-Fuels Part 2: Interesting Second Generation Options : Sustainablog.

• Previous Entry: Will biofuel from algae look like Big Oil or Big Agriculture?
• Next Entry: Technologies That Could Change the Energy Picture – WSJ.com