On 18 Apr, 20:39, pas...@blueyonder.co.ruk (Peter Ashby) wrote:
>  wrote:
> > Peter Ashby  wrote:
> > : New Scientist ran an article a couple of months ago, even if we used all
> > : the set aside and marginal land there is simply not enough land area in
> > : the world to grow crops for biofuel enough to replace our current usage.
> > : We therefore have to reduce our usage of fuels.
>
> > That is of course true, but the need continue researching biofuels and
> > driving the technology forward is very great. Note your use of the word
> > "land", which could be sidestepped by development of algal biofuels that
> > could be grown in vast plastic bags in the open ocean, etc. Biofuels also
> > have prospects for use off-world, in circumstances where solar power cant
> > provide enough energy density for the task.
>
> > In the same way that we shouldnt let problems with nuclear fission
> > terchnology (waste, accidents, technology proliferation to WMD, etc) put
> > us off aiming for nuclear fusion, we mustnt left problems with 1st
> > generation biofuels put us of aiming for the ultimate prize of fully
> > harvesting the amazing catalytic power of chlorophyll.
>
> I agree entirely, there is a company back home in NZ with a technology
> to harvest biodiesel from algae grown on sewerage ponds. They have run
> trial vehicles on it with no problems. However I have yet to see any
> estimates of how much of our energy needs we could meet this way. Until
> we get this I have no idea exactly how useful algal based fuels will be.
>
> Peter
>
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> - Show quoted text -

There is an informative article in today's Telegraph which discusses
food shortages and biofuels, and that may be of interest:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?xml=/earth/2008/04/22/scifood122.xml&page=1

Dave