At the moment we burn about 400 times net primary productivity in fossil 
fuels every year, so no matter what this new scheme does it can't do 
much to stave off the impact of peak oil or to help combat climate 
change. The Zero Carbon Britain report of the Centre for Alternative 
Technology <www.zerocarbonbritain.com> suggests that we switch to 
electric vehicles, as plants are very inefficient at turning the energy 
in sunlight into something useful to humankind

Chris

A&M Meikle wrote:

> More from the world of business as usual via Jim Kingsdale [see 
> http://www.energyinvestmentstrategies.com/2008/05/31/algae-based-crude-could-hit-market-in-five-years/#more-536]. 
> Oil made from algae - not sure if they intend seeding the world's 
> oceans but this made me smile: "In a nutshell, the green crude’s 
> hydrocarbons would be chemically identical to those in gasoline and be 
> entirely compatible with current energy infrastructure from cars to 
> refineries and pipelines. Sapphire CEO and co-founder, Jason Pyle, is 
> being cagey about revealing how much it costs to produce his 
> algae-based product or how much it would cost at the petrol pump. In 
> interviews, he indicated that production costs per barrel would be 
> similar to petroleum-based fuel, which is very much a moving target at 
> the moment."
> If it ever becomes commercially available, the CO2 taken up by algae 
> will be released again when the resulting oil is burned, which is 
> better than releasing ‘fossil’ CO2 but does anyone know how that might 
> impact on overall CO2 emissions? Not so much, I imagine...
> Mandy
>
>
>     Algae-based Crude Could Hit Market in Five Years
>     <http://www.energyinvestmentstrategies.com/2008/05/31/algae-based-crude-could-hit-market-in-five-years/>
>
> According to the following press report 
> <http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/may/30/greenbusiness.oil> 
> startup company Sapphire Energy is having enormous success in 
> producing crude from algae. If commercially feasible and scalable, the 
> new technology could be a game changer for both energy and global 
> warming. The report concludes that production could become available 
> in five years.
>
>
>       Funding bonanza for oil-from-algae firm
>
>     * John Sterlicchi, US correspondent
>     * guardian.co.uk <http://www.guardian.co.uk/>, [see
>       http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/may/30/greenbusiness.oil]
>     * Friday May 30 2008
>     * Article history
>
> A Californian start-up company promising “green crude” fuel from algae 
> has been given $50m (£25.33m) in funding from investors, including 
> Britain’s biggest charity, the Wellcome Trust.
>
> The year-old start-up, Sapphire Energy <http://sapphireenergy.com/>, 
> came out of “stealth mode” this week with an announcement that its 
> trials have been so successful that its backers have promised no-limit 
> funding.
>
> “Sapphire’s interdisciplinary team hit milestones within three months 
> that everyone thought were impossible. We realized at that point we 
> could change the world, so we sat them down and told them, ‘the 
> chequebook is completely open; tell us what you need’,” said Robert 
> Nelsen, managing director of ARCH Venture Partners, one of the 
> companies that has ploughed money into Sapphire.
>
> Sapphire is not the first company to say that it can deliver fuel from 
> algae. There are several others, including GreenFuel Technologies 
> <http://www.greenfuelonline.com/>, which earlier in May announce its 
> own new round of funding; $13.9m from an A-list of venture capitalists 
> including Draper Fisher Jurvetson.
>
> GreenFuel, which has been suffering production problems, is run by 
> renowned Silicon Valley veteran, Bob Metcalfe. Regarded as a guru in 
> the computing networking field, Metcalfe was brought in last year to 
> improve production at the company.
>
> Sapphire claims to be having no such problems and says it has created 
> a breakthrough process that produces crude oil directly from sunlight, 
> CO2 and photosynthetic micro-organisms, beginning with algae.
>
> Sapphire has big ambitions - it doesn’t just believe that it can 
> supplement oil, but also that it can replace it entirely, using the 
> same infrastructure that is in place around the world.
>
> In a nutshell, the green crude’s hydrocarbons would be chemically 
> identical to those in gasoline and be entirely compatible with current 
> energy infrastructure from cars to refineries and pipelines.
>
> Sapphire CEO and co-founder, Jason Pyle, is being cagey about 
> revealing how much it costs to produce his algae-based product or how 
> much it would cost at the petrol pump. In interviews, he indicated 
> that production costs per barrel would be similar to petroleum-based 
> fuel, which is very much a moving target at the moment.
>
> Pyle preferred to indulge in US-based jingoism, despite the fact that 
> funding comes from Wellcome, which sees its investing role as 
> benefiting the world at large. “Sapphire Energy was founded on the 
> belief that the only way to cure our (US) dependence on foreign oil 
> and end our flirtation with ethanol and biodiesel is through radical 
> new thinking and a commitment to new technologies,” he told the recent 
> Simmons Alternative Energy Conference.
>
> Another co-founder, Kristina Burow (also of ARCH), also didn’t get the 
> memo about the common good. “It is imperative, both economically and 
> for national security reasons, that American companies figure out ways 
> to produce oil here at home. Imagine if even a portion of the $200bn 
> we spend on foreign crude stayed here: the payoff in new jobs, and 
> domestic economic growth would be huge,” she said.
>
> Pyle did stress the environmental advantages of “green crude”. By 
> using CO2 spewed out from the likes of coal plants, the production 
> process would help remove harmful emissions from the atmosphere. The 
> fuel also would produce fewer pollutants in the refining process and 
> fewer harmful emissions from vehicle tailpipes, Pyle told the Los 
> Angeles Times.
>
> It will be five years before “green crude” is commercially available
>
> See also http://sapphireenergy.com/mediacenter/press_release/1
> ____________________________
>
> "When nothing seems to help, I go and look at a stonecutter hammering 
> away at his rock perhaps a hundred times without as much as a crack 
> showing in it. Yet at the hundred and first blow it will split in two, 
> and I know it was not that blow that did it, but all that had gone 
> before." - Jacob August Riis
>
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