Pentagon makes biodiesel Jet Fuel from algae for $3/gal

[ManaMan]

This great news, apparently DARPA -- the US government agency that gave us things like the internet and such has figured out a procedure to produce bio-diesel jet fuel for less that $3 a gallon. This is great news for a number of reasons:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2 ... el-problem

1. for national security - no longer will the military be paying money to a nation / nations (I'm looking at you Saudi Arabia) that fund terrorism/extremism in order to fuel its fleet.

2. for civilian use - whatever processes they develop should be able to be used by the general public eventually. A gasoline/ethanol version could also be developed based on their insights.

3. algae-base biofuels are the greenest and most efficient of all biofuels. Corn and soy based fuels are barely better for the environment (if not worse) than actual petroleum. Only switchgrass even comes close to algae for use in producing biofuels.

4. it won't take food out of our food system or take up crop land like other biofuels do. A few factories spread around the country could meet our needs.

5. it's represents a great synergy between left and right. The left doesn't want to fund the military, the right doesn't want to fund environmental research. By framing it as a national defense and a green issue, programs like this are successful in getting funding and not getting cut.

Here's hoping this doesn't fade away and/or get suppressed by the powers-that-be. It's encouraging that it's the powers-that-be themselves that created it though.

[RentCavalier]

Cheers to that! I think most biofuel alternatives are incredibly stupid (ethanol!) but algae-based biofuels sound pretty tight, and by the sound of it, they are. It's a good thing the government is finally taking advantage of it. Don't get too excited about a civilian-use for algae biofuels though: there's no real private industry for it yet.

[SineSwiper]

If it is truly less than $3/gal for the end user, I would be be willing to pay the extra 25-50 cents to ensure that I'm not buying gas from Middle Eastern countries.

[Zeus]

If it is truly less than $3/gal for the end user, I would be be willing to pay the extra 25-50 cents to ensure that I'm not buying gas from Middle Eastern countries.

You seem to think that the Middle Eastern countries actually control their own oil....

[Julius Seeker]

3. algae-base biofuels are the greenest and most efficient of all biofuels. Corn and soy based fuels are barely better for the environment (if not worse) than actual petroleum. Only switchgrass even comes close to algae for use in producing biofuels.

This is the good news. Greater efficiency in energy production vs environmentalism is a step in the correct direction. Though this doesn't solve our world population crisis; reduction of population levels over time is the only very sure way to environmental recovery.

Now if we can get to the point of Sim City 2000 Arcologies =P

1. for national security - no longer will the military be paying money to a nation / nations (I'm looking at you Saudi Arabia) that fund terrorism/extremism in order to fuel its fleet.

Don't allow yourself to fall into the illusion that the companies in the US have different stakeholders than the companies anywhere else in the world.

Terrorism is a buzzword that isn't a real thing; call it patriotism and the movement is patriotic, call it terrorism and it becomes terrible - both serve the same purpose, to gather support. People lead the masses by the nose with buzzwords, it's as true in commercial marketing as it is in politics.

[Don]

All the green fuels seem to have serious issues with scalability. I mean seriously if they're that cheap to make, you would have an oil company make this stuff and sell it to you as oil ($3 a gallon sure is cheaper than whatever they pay for I'm sure).

Edit: Nm I thought that was per barrel, but $3 a gallon is still pretty cheap, espcially compared to when oil spikes. So it'd still make sense for them to keep that around for emergencies.

[Oracle]

This just in, algae blight! Refineries in the SW US have been hit especially hard! Algae biofuel spikes to $6/gallon!

[SineSwiper]

This just in, algae blight! Refineries in the SW US have been hit especially hard! Algae biofuel spikes to $6/gallon!

All the more reason not to use it as "THE SOLUTION" to our energy crisis. We shouldn't be so single-threaded.

[Zeus]

"The solution" involves a combination of alternate fuels, not a single solution. Implementing biodiesel, more electricity-producing methods, and maybe another solution or two and spending the next 20 years converting the population over is the way to do it.

[Shrinweck]

Also - how big of a jump is it from jet fuel to car fuel? This might not be any kind of solution for the masses at all.