Is algae the answer to alternative fuel?

Question

I just read an article about GM algae and how lifefuel is working to make this "wild card" technology a reality.

What are your thoughts on this?

Answer 1

It is an answer, but not the only answer. There is no single answer. People get trapped into thinking we can have only one source of energy because oil seems like the only one we have now. Oil is certainly a major source of energy, but even that is not the only source. It is just the easiest source to use. All other sources are more difficult to use, and all (except coal) are more limited, so we will need a group of different alternative resources to replace the one big one that is running out; oil.

Answer 2

Algae has the potential to be a huge source of biodiesel, but so far it is in the theoretical stage. Algae could be grown in huge vats in the desert - there's plenty of room and sunlight - and would produce large stores of fats, or oils, that can be transformed into biodiesel. The problem is, unfortunatetly, there is no feasible way to extract the cell walls and organelles from the oils in the algae mixture (currently.)

Overall, it seems like a potentially better idea than corn ethanol, which would require growing fuel on land previously used for food, which is in short supply as the population increases.

Answer 3

I saw a show on it.  It wasn't being used as a fuel but rather as a cleanup system for smoke stacks.  So no would be my answer.

Answer 4

It is an answer, but not THE answer. There is no single answer. People get trapped into thinking we can have only one source of energy because oil seems like the only one we have now. Oil is certainly a major source of energy, but even that is not the only source. It is just the easiest source to use. All other sources are more difficult to use, and all (except coal) are more limited, so we will need a group of different alternative resources to replace the one big one that is running out; oil.

Answer 5

No look up salt water powered car on youtube.

Answer 6

It's a wildcard.  It's pie in the sky.  It's not in production yet.  

IF it works as well as their proponents say, yes, it COULD be a single solution for our fuel problems.

Biodiesel as done today won't, because the yield is too low.  But there are many known plants which much higher yield

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biodiesel#Y...

Is algae going to be that good?  I don't know, time will tell.

Answer 7

Algae takes in CO2 and gives us the O2 and keeps the C. It doesn't look like a fuel to me.

Answer 8

I don't think this is that wild an idea.

Oil can be extracted from just about any plant or animal matter. (obviously some are better than others).

There  is a great demand on our already scarce farming resources. 70% of our world is covered by seawater. So it seems to make good sense to look at marine based agriculture.

Finding or breding (or gm) algae or plankton that could be useful source of oil (or hydrogen) is possible. Getting anything commercially viable will be a challenge.