Pond life promises a green future

That’s the verdict of the latest report from market research company Kiplinger. It says that algae will eclipse all other biofuel feedstocks as the cheapest, easiest, and most environmentally friendly means of producing liquid fuel for cars, homes and power generators.

Persuasive
The argument is certainly persuasive: algae require only sunlight, water and carbon dioxide to grow; they can quadruple in biomass in just one day; and algae suck up harmful pollutants such as nitrogen and carbon dioxide as they grow.

Some strains of algae contain over 50 per cent oil and an average acre of algae can yield around 19,000 litres of biodiesel, compared to just 265 litres for one acre of soya beans or 1,600 litres of ethanol for an acre of corn.

Big but
However, as with many of these potentially revolutionary alternative fuel technologies, there’s a big but – the cost. The large-scale photobioreactors (enclosed systems that produce algae in layers of tubes or shallow ponds) needed to produce algae consistently and cleanly, are very expensive to build: between €3.5 million to €7 million each. Moreover, it would take at least five years to achieve large-scale commercial production of algae.

The question has to be asked, in light of all the existing research into biofuels and potential feedstocks, are algae a realistic option? Or is it simply a costly distraction, one that risks deflecting money from more practical, shorter-term solutions?