Biodiesel from Algae - The future of Biofuels

Biodiesel from Algae - The future of Biofuels

Biodiesel From Algae is likely a long term solution to the problems related to declining crude oil production and ever increasing prices.

Biofuels derived from Algae produce an Algae Oil are considered high quality and can be converted to an excellent biofuel. While all the technology is not yet in place to produce fuel on a mass scale, we are able to see that this is the direction we need to heading.

If you look at yield as a measure of viability, an acre of corn can produce approximately 20-30 gallons of Ethanol or 1,680,000 to 2,520,000 Btu's (84,000 Btu's per gallon) of energy; biodiesel derived from Soybean Oil produces approximately 70 gallons per acre or about 9,100,000 Btu's (130,000 Btu's per gallon), whereas biodiesel derived from Algae can produce up to 100,000 gallons or 13,000,000,000 (yes that's 13 Billion) Btu's (130,000 Btu's per gallon) from a single acre of non-arable desert.

As an oversimplified example if you converted 7,786,000 acres to the production of Algae Oil and converted that to biodiesel you could meet all of the fuel needs for transportation in the US. Note: This is about 10% of the size of New Mexico.

While this is likely a long way off, I believe our government and others in private industry should be investing in developing this technology as quickly as possible.

This technology can also be used to soak up huge amounts of CO2 and it leaves behind a biomass suitable for animal feed and many other possibilities.

Below, is a YouTube CNN video that shows some of this technology and how it can work.



We would appreciate your comments, questions, and ideas.

Diesel Doctor