Spanish firm claims it can make oil from plankton

Reuters ^ | 07/20/06

[TaxRelief]

The net energy collection would be on the order of 105 MWhrs per square kilometer.

Absorbing that much extra energy from the sun could contribute to global warming.

[r9etb]

Absorbing that much extra energy from the sun could contribute to global warming.

For the most part it'd be absorbed anyway, by the water....

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

***I think I saw something like this in a movie once, starring Charlton Heston and Edward G. Robinson.***

Soylent Green is people. Soylent Red is plankton.

[Alexander Rubin]

I guess. Your point about energy collection efficiency is well taken, btw. Do you think it's viable as a main method of energy production? Or would it just be supplementary, at best?

I mean...how much surface area can really be dedicated to something like this?

[JasonC]

You put some but not all of it back. No problem.

Not all, because some remains as ash etc.

[r9etb]

Do you think it's viable as a main method of energy production? Or would it just be supplementary, at best?

Hard to say, without any idea of what their true yield is. It might well be a major source, which is about all you can really ask of any alternative.

I mean...how much surface area can really be dedicated to something like this?

The oceans are pretty big.... I think it's primarily a matter of access, rather than availability.

[wildbill]

Starve the Whales! Feed an SUV!