142 comments on Cost Viability and Algae
Comments can no longer be added to this story.
| Show without comments | PDF version
142 comments on Cost Viability and Algae
Comments can no longer be added to this story.
| Show without comments | PDF version
Search The Oil Drum with Google
Support The Oil Drum
Recently on TOD:World
TOD:Campfire
TOD:Europe
- Peak Gold, Easier to Model than Peak Oil? - Part I
- Carbon Capture and Storage
- Oilwatch Monthly November 2009
TOD:Canada
- In this house, we obey the laws of thermodynamics!
- The Round-Up: October 24, 2008
- Compressed Air Energy Storage - How viable is it?
TOD:Australia/NZ
- International Energy Agency calls 'Peak' on OECD Oil Demand
- Australian Senate: Peak Oil motion defeated 31:6
- The Bullroarer - Friday 20th November 2009
TOD:Net Energy
Blogroll
Energy Sites
- The Coming Global Oil Crisis
- Die Off
- Dry Dipstick
- Energy Bulletin
- From the Wilderness
- Life After the Oil Crash
- Peak Oil Crisis
- Peak Oil News and Message Boards
- Powerswitch
- Rigzone
- Matthew Simmons
- Wolf at the Door
Environment & Sustainability Sites
- The Daily Green
- EcoGeek
- Eco Street
- Green Car Congress
- Green Options
- green.alltop.com
- Gristmill
- RealClimate
- Sustainablog
- Treehugger
- WorldChanging
Blogs
- Casaubon's Book
- Cleantech Blog
- Clusterf
k Nation (Jim Kunstler) - The Cost of Energy
- David Strahan
- Early Warning
- The Energy Blog
- European Tribune
- GraphOilology
- Health After Oil
- jeffvail.net
- Mobjectivist
- Peak Energy (Australia)
- Peak Energy (USA)
- R-Squared
- Resource Insights
Finance & Economics Blogs
- The Big Picture
- Calculated Risk
- The Crash Course
- Ecological Economics
- Econbrowser
- Environmental Economics
- Infectious Greed
- The Mess That Greenspan Made
- Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis
Organizations
Peak Oil Primers
Beware email scams!
Beware email scams claiming to be from this site. We do not have any job openings. If anyone contacts you about a job at The Oil Drum, do not reply to them, and definitely do not give them any personal information or send them money. Read more here.
“My father rode a camel. I drive a car. My son flies a jet-plane. His son will ride a camel.”
—Saudi saying
User login
Contact
- Content: editors at theoildrum dot com
- Tech support: support at theoildrum dot com
Personnel
- Editors: Nate Hagens, Gail the Actuary, Prof. Goose
- DrumBeat Editor: Leanan
- Contributors: ace, Engineer-Poet, Heading Out, jeffvail, JoulesBurn, Sam Foucher, Robert Rapier
- TOD:Campfire: Glenn, Jason Bradford
- TOD:Europe: Chris Vernon, Euan Mearns, Francois Cellier, Jerome a Paris, Luís de Sousa, Rembrandt, Rune Likvern, Ugo Bardi
- TOD:Canada: benk, Libelle
- TOD:ANZ: Big Gav, Phil Hart, aeldric
- Emeritus: Stuart Staniford
- Technician: Super G
License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.










GAIA Host Collective
The gist of the analysis is that algal biodiesel will cost $850 per barrel.
Here's the conclusion:
Conclusions
1. Maximum achievable density of solar capture with industrial photobioreactors is on the order of 6.5-10.5 W/m2, which compares with terrestrial yields of 0.3-1W/m2 Such densities of solar conversion do not justify even the most inexpensive capital and operational outlays for PBR buildout and operation.
2. Algal microorganisms operating with maximum photosynthetic efficiency allocate only a limited fraction of the captured solar energy into lipid production. Only this limited fraction can be processed via the lucrative biodiesel pathway and the rest of the biomass will have to be allocated to less profitable products.
3. A PBR-based biodiesel plant operating at maximum efficiency is not economically feasible at fuel prices below $800/bbl.
4. A PBR-based biodiesel plant will have a maximum carbon mitigation potential of less than 30 kgCO2/m2/yr
5. Biofuel production in PBR-based plants compares unfavourably with other alternative technologies for liquid fuel production, carbon mitigation and solar energy.
6. Hype surrounding some alternative energy startups sometimes disregards the laws of physics and other fundamental principles.
I suspect the premise is wrong and that the table showing the productivity of "crops" doesn't really have uniform boundary conditions.
I think it was Odum that spent a bit of time in one of his later books sketching out why algae wasn't going to turn out as well as some people hoped. Thermodynamic arguments if I recall.
Ultimately it might not much matter what is more productive. I suspect it might well turn out that from any biosystem where we take so much that we concern ourselves with whether or not there is another (poly)culture more productive for us we are already taking way too much.
Or to look at it another way, the sustainable harvest of an established sequoia grove or a salmon run might not be a whole lot different than the sustainable harvest of an algae pond. Marginal return. That's just a gut feeling and maybe entirely wrong.
cfm in Gray, ME