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Department of Defence wants the price to go down from $20 a gallon to $2 (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22027663/)

http://www.cleanmpg.com/photos/data/501/Algae_producing_fuel.jpgAP – Nov. 29, 2007

ST. PAUL, Minn. - The 16 big flasks of bubbling bright green liquids in Roger Ruan's lab at the University of Minnesota are part of a new boom in renewable energy research.

Driven by renewed investment as oil prices push $100 a barrel, Ruan and scores of scientists around the world are racing to turn algae into a commercially viable energy source.

Some varieties of algae are as much as 50 percent oil, and that oil can be converted into biodiesel or jet fuel. The biggest challenge is slashing the cost of production, which by one Defense Department estimate is running more than $20 a gallon.

"If you can get algae oils down below $2 a gallon, then you'll be where you need to be. And there's a lot of people who think you can," said Jennifer Holmgren, director of the renewable fuels unit of UOP LLC, an energy subsidiary of Honeywell International Inc… http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22027663/

I saw some figures a while back in an article by a university Physics professor that indicated we could produce enough biodiesel from algae grown in our desert areas to fuel all of our ground transportation (assuming all such transportation is diesel of course). He contended that the algae could be nourished by industrial plant run-off that is normally considered waste.

Digging a bit, that article is here:

UNH Biodiesel Group (http://www.unh.edu/p2/biodiesel/article_alge.html)

It also has a nice write up about the shortcomings of hydrogen...

How do you grow algae in a desert? I thought you needed moiture to premote algae growth. H

Another great article from Clean MPG.com!! And Sean's link on the "Widescale Bio-diesel Production from Algae" certainly opened my eyes a few notches. The last sentence of the article, to me, most delineated our plight.

"Due to the lack of government funding for this field of work, UNH and its collaborators are seeking private partners to finance the continued development of the technology".
For more information contact:

Michael Briggs ;
email msbriggs@unh.edu

Now, you would think, given the untenable situation this country is in (fuel that can most only be purchased from tyrants; the $100-150 billion we spend every year buying oil from other nations so they can buy our country out from under us; the need to use military might to protect and secure oil reserves our economy depends on; the downward spiral of America's standard of living; etc,etc) you would think our government would heavily fund something like this, which shows SO much promise.

But, Alas, no. I think we for years have been caught in a "Catch 22" situation. On one hand everyone knows that this is a non renewable resource and the manufacturing of these monstrous energy blasphemy muscle cars, and the pissing away of this resource is the height of irresponsibility for the non renewable resource, our people, our descendants, and the planet we live on.

But, on the other hand Capitalism recognizes a need and fills it at a profit. Any corporation worth its salt will invariably head directly for the solution that makes the biggest profit. Everything else is pretty much irrelevant. Profit is king.

And so we have the mentality Ford espoused in its commercial for their Mustang where the "father figure" is pointing out the joys of "peeling out" to a younger, admiring grasshopper.

The exact same thing is happening with natural gas, a by-product in many cases from the mining of oil. Oil companies are "flaming off" as much natural gas as they are selling in the U.S. Some say more. Why? The oil cartel said it with remarkably honestly in another eye opening Clean MPG article a few weeks ago. They said in effect, "why should we introduce all that gas into the market? We would be competing with our self". Burning it off keeps the price (and their profits) up, way up. Thinking like that is trouble, for sure, for all mankind!

Now I believe in Capitalism. I believe it has made this country the great country it is. But, I am certainly not prepared to stick my head in the sand and say that we have no problem here! We must fix it.

And we must do it soon.

Have a nice weekend - keep on hypermiling!

Bob.

2007 summer MPG Average = 54.4 MPG, Praise to the RRSB Saturn.