{"id":1818,"date":"2010-03-15T10:08:43","date_gmt":"2010-03-15T14:08:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.energyrefuge.com\/blog\/?p=1818"},"modified":"2017-09-05T17:52:53","modified_gmt":"2017-09-05T21:52:53","slug":"is-the-algal-biofuel-dream-about-to-come-true","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.energyrefuge.com\/blog\/is-the-algal-biofuel-dream-about-to-come-true\/","title":{"rendered":"Is the algal biofuel dream about to come true?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><figure style=\"width: 340px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/www.energyrefuge.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/biodiesel%20from%20algae.jpg\" width=\"340\" height=\"180\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Source: Ecogenics Research Center<\/figcaption><\/figure>The Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has been at the forefront of technological breakthroughs for many decades \u00e2\u20ac\u201c computer networking, NLS (the first type of hypertext system) \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and now its research into algal fuel seems to be yielding results, or so it says.<br \/>\n<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>It recently announced that \u00e2\u20ac\u0153oil from algae is projected at $2 per gallon, headed towards $1 per gallon.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d DARPA says it could be mass-producing up to 50 million gallons of algae-based biofuel in 2011.<br \/>\n<!--adsense#300--><\/p>\n<p>There is a lot of interest in algae as a source of renewable energy. Algae can be grown in bioreactors on land not used to cultivation of food crops. Besides, algae production absorbs CO2 and its facilities can be co-located with power plants that burn fossil fuels. The CO2 from the power plants can be routed to the algae production facilities. <\/p>\n<p>Avweb, a website dedicated to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.avweb.com\">aviation news<\/a>, wrote that the goal of DARPA\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s research is to find a renewable energy replacement for JP-8, a type of fossil fuel used by the Air Force as well as an alternative for army vehicles. So the research is aimed at military use of clean fuel.<\/p>\n<p>But not everyone is convinced. Blogger Robert Rapier <a href=\"http:\/\/i-r-squared.blogspot.com\/2010\/02\/algal-oil-for-2-gallon.html\">thinks<\/a> the announcement is nothing but an exercise in PR. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I don&#8217;t believe they can produce algal oil for $2\/gallon. I don&#8217;t believe anyone can, particularly if they are growing the algae in open ponds\u00e2\u20ac\u009d, he said.<\/p>\n<p>More skepticism can be found <a href=\"http:\/\/theenergycollective.com\/TheEnergyCollective\/59245\">here<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p>What do you think? Is the $2 per algal biofuel claim credible?<br \/>\n<!--adsense--><\/p>\n<div class=\"zemanta-pixie\" style=\"margin-top:10px;height:15px\"><a class=\"zemanta-pixie-a\" href=\"http:\/\/reblog.zemanta.com\/zemified\/8137e6c3-ba5d-43e2-bb44-48de3d1e9593\/\" title=\"Reblog this post [with Zemanta]\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"zemanta-pixie-img\" src=\"http:\/\/img.zemanta.com\/reblog_e.png?x-id=8137e6c3-ba5d-43e2-bb44-48de3d1e9593\" alt=\"Reblog this post [with Zemanta]\" style=\"border:none;float:right\"><\/a><span class=\"zem-script more-related pretty-attribution\"><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"http:\/\/static.zemanta.com\/readside\/loader.js\" defer=\"defer\"><\/script><\/span><\/div>\n<h3 class='related_post_title'>Related Posts:<\/h3><ul class='related_post'><li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.energyrefuge.com\/blog\/see-how-big-the-gulf-of-mexico-oil-spill-is\/\" title=\"See how big the Gulf of Mexico oil spill is\">See how big the Gulf of Mexico oil spill is<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.energyrefuge.com\/blog\/latin-america-starts-to-migrate-to-renewable-energy\/\" title=\"Latin America starts to migrate to renewable energy\">Latin America starts to migrate to renewable energy<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.energyrefuge.com\/blog\/fossil-fuel-past-renewable-energy-future\/\" title=\"Monday fun: fossil fuel vintage videos\">Monday fun: fossil fuel vintage videos<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.energyrefuge.com\/blog\/new-report-outlines-how-clean-energy-can-generate-jobs-in-the-u-s\/\" title=\"New report outlines how clean energy can generate jobs in the U.S.\">New report outlines how clean energy can generate jobs in the U.S.<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.energyrefuge.com\/blog\/un-panel-issues-statement-on-biofuels\/\" title=\"UN panel issues statement on biofuels\">UN panel issues statement on biofuels<\/a><\/li><\/ul>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has been at the forefront of technological breakthroughs for many decades \u00e2\u20ac\u201c computer networking, NLS (the first type of hypertext system) \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and now its research into algal fuel seems to be yielding results, or so it says. Related Posts:See how big the Gulf of Mexico oil spill [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38,12],"tags":[300,1710,301,1707,299,88,1722,1713],"class_list":["post-1818","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-algae","category-fuels","tag-air-force","tag-algae","tag-algae-fuel","tag-biofuel","tag-darpa","tag-energy","tag-fossil-fuel","tag-renewable-energy"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.energyrefuge.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1818","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.energyrefuge.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.energyrefuge.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.energyrefuge.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.energyrefuge.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1818"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.energyrefuge.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1818\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9597,"href":"https:\/\/www.energyrefuge.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1818\/revisions\/9597"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.energyrefuge.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1818"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.energyrefuge.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1818"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.energyrefuge.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1818"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}