By: Quentin Smith

Quentin Smith — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 22:10:41 +0000

Roy, have you considered the more difficult problem of distributing the fuel and getting mass adoption by consumers in the near term – I would think this is a bigger problem than fuel manufacturing difficulties. Ethanol can be blended directly into gasoline which has massive existing infrastructure (California blended on average 6% by volume ethanol in its gasoline in 2005). Regular cars can use as much as 24% ethanol fuel without any modification (many people are doing this in the Midwest at blender pumps). If you want to go higher – up to 85% ethanol, Flex fuel cars cost about the same to manufacture as regular cars – the main difference is some seals on the fuel pump. So there’s a low transition costs associate with ethanol. Finally, RFS2 legislation mandates a much higher amount of ethanol at 36 Billion Gallons per Year by 2022 than biodiesel. Some interesting reads/sources for more background: Energy Victory – Robert Zubrin, also check out California Energy Commission presentation at http://www.energy.ca.gov/2007publications/CEC-999-2007-006/CEC-999-2007-006.PDF.

By: Roy Bauer

Roy Bauer — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 02:01:43 +0000

its a good first step. But would it be easier to make oil or biodiesel than to make ethanol.

Comments on: A Step Toward Algae Into Ethanol

By: Quentin Smith

By: Roy Bauer