Petrol must now include biofuels

reply to post by biggie smalls


I saw this on TV not too long ago.

A guy/company in Arizona has several 'greenhouses' used for creating POND SCUM.

Apparently, this process has minimal costs and is a great alternative to using crops for biodiesel.

The ratio (can't remember the numbers exactly) of pond scum (algae) compared to one hectare of land used for crop was amazingly significant.


Edit to add links..

Pond Scum

More pond scum

And even more...



You could produce it faster, in greater qty, and use almost no food source to do it.

Not sure what the hold up is however....

[edit on 17-4-2008 by Grailkeeper]

reply to post by Grailkeeper


This reminds me of the "Algae Wafers" that fish hobbyists can buy, to quickly and cheaply create algae in their aquarium... For Plecostamus, Otocinclus, and any other water creature that eats the stuff.

reply to post by pavlovsdog


There doesn't seem to be much logic, other than to increase profits for Big Oil. But here in the US we have been paying farmers large subsidies to NOT farm large percentages of their fields. The reasoning behind this is to keep crop prices up. Short supply=high demand=better money per bushel.

From what I've heard, the best crop to grow for overall utility would be hemp. And that wouldn't ruin food prices at all, nor interfere with current production levels.

I'm still not sure what 2.5% biofuel has to do with anything though.