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No all algea/fuel proposals are beyond commercial economics.

We are deeply involved in these types of projects on a daily basis and in our opinion algae goes now where. There are simply too many hurdles to economic development of algae for large-scale biofuels production. Too many to discuss thoroughly on this forum. I can also point you to many recent articles that are waking up to these facts.

We see this kind of hype in press releases ALL the time in the renewable fuels business. It is a business with more than its fair share of charlatans and quick buck artist creating short term jobs based on ill advised investments and free Government grants. Sometimes facilities are even built without the proper forethought and they end up catastrophic failures. As an example, about 50 of the 150 or so conventional ethanol plants built in the past ten years are now bankrupt. We expect another 20 or so to go under even though the ethanol business has picked up a bit. The ones that are failing did not take into account the logistics and other relative features required to provide a competitive advantage for survival. How do you think facilities for cellulosic or algae are going to be competitive when the Capex cost is 5 to 6 times that of a conventionl fermentation ethanol plant. Most cellulosic plants will not be profitable even if they could get the bionmass feedstock delivered to the gate for free!. The economics are just not there.

The most important developments for biofuels will come from improved starch and sugar based crops period. The rest are pipe dreams. The economics of a large commercial scale biofuels facility is much different than a backyard still or some cellulosic technology making fuel in a beaker and a few test tubes in a lab. There are economic realities that pure science can not always address when you attempt to commercialize technology.

Renewable fuels from algae is dead end at this point.