Algae: The next biofuel bet

Hundreds of millions of dollars are being spent on pond scum as a future source of renewable energy

Algae, it appears, are the new green in the quest for a sustainable biofuel that can run cars, put airplanes in the sky and be made into shopping bags. Dozens of start-ups have sprung out of universities, government labs and corporate R&D divisions, all hoping to break the world’s addiction to oil in a way that’s economical and doesn’t compete against food production. More significantly, corporate titans – Dow Chemical just one among them – are entering the game.
Not that the road ahead will be easy. It’s no secret that biofuels – whether ethanol or biodiesel – have gotten a bum rap over the past two years. Most of the ethanol produced in North America today comes from corn, and a fierce debate has emerged over whether prime agricultural land should be used to grow crops for fuel instead of food. Many researchers have also questioned whether corn-based ethanol, taking into account the energy required to grow, harvest and process the corn, offers enough of an energy and environmental payback to make it worthwhile.

The rush to produce biodiesel, meanwhile, has seen rainforests cut down in Indonesia to make room for palm plants. It’s a classic case of unintended consequences that some scientists call an ecological disaster. But biofuels themselves aren’t the problem, which has more to do with how they’re produced, and that’s why algae have re-energized interest in this emerging market.

Many algae species can grow in salt water, so there’s no draw on fresh water – in fact, fresh water is often a useable by-product.

Algae production doesn’t compete with food, and it doesn’t require prime agricultural land to grow. By some estimates, it uses one-tenth the land required for growing corn. The biggest challenge is to develop an approach to producing oil or ethanol from algae that can be done at a competitive cost on a massive, global scale.

Toronto Star