And it’s a water soluble poison. Fumes are more irritating to eyes than those of conventional gasoline. Gasoline spills want to stay above water and eventually evaporate.
But anyhow I think the biggest problem with algae-ols is their copious thirst for fresh water. This harvest of biomass carbon isn’t a dry process. If an algae could be engineered that would be happy drinking sea water, that could change the picture. I hope it wouldn’t get loose and cover the oceans however.
Nothing is perfect. If we want cheap energy to get out of this economy, lets go for anything that works. We can’t used subsidized stuff.
The Great Depression was caused by bad debt too. All the banks have to write off their bad loans. Propping up housing prices from the bubble is dumb. But everyone can use cheap energy from one of the world’s top five chemical commodities. It’s not the only idea, but it shouuld help.