PopSci: More Pond Scum
 In the July issue of Popular Science, an article related to the previous post about Algae-based Bio-Diesel. Requiring only (an exact balance) of sunlight, carbon dioxide, and water - the search is on for the most productive variety of algae.
Algae has some important advantages over other oil-producing crops, like canola and soybeans. It can be grown in almost any enclosed space, it multiplies like gangbusters, and it requires very few inputs to flourish—mainly just sunlight, water and carbon dioxide. “Because algae has a high surface-area-to-volume ratio, it can absorb nutrients very quickly,†Sears says. “Its small size is what makes it mighty.â€
There are plans to use the pollutant carbon dioxide of various industrial process as the “food” for large algae farms, growing algae while “absorbing” the pollutant at the same time.
 The proof is in the numbers. About 140 billion gallons of biodiesel would be needed every year to replace all petroleum-based transportation fuel in the U.S. It would take nearly three billion acres of fertile land to produce that amount with soybeans, and more than one billion acres to produce it with canola. Unfortunately, there are only 434 million acres of cropland in the entire country, and we probably want to reserve some of that to grow food. But because of its ability to propagate almost virally in a small space, algae could do the job in just 95 million acres of land. What’s more, it doesn’t need fertile soil to thrive. It grows in ponds, bags or tanks that can be just as easily set up in the desert—or next to a carbon-dioxide-spewing power plant—as in the country’s breadbasket.
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