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Link to Professor Briggs paper: http://www.unh.edu/p2/biodiesel/article_alge.html

posted 4 years, 10 months ago
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Algae is the answer. Some species are over 50% lipids, i.e. oil. The seminal research paper is by Professor Michael Briggs of the University of New Hampshire Physics Department. To quote Professor Briggs:

...to replace all transportation fuels in the US, we would need 140.8 billion gallons of biodiesel, or roughly 19 quads (one quad is roughly 7.5 billion gallons of biodiesel). To produce that amount would require a land mass of almost 15,000 square miles. To put that in perspective, consider that the Sonora desert in the southwestern US comprises 120,000 square miles. Enough biodiesel to replace all petroleum transportation fuels could be grown in 15,000 square miles, or roughly 12.5 percent of the area of the Sonora desert (note for clarification - I am not advocating putting 15,000 square miles of algae ponds in the Sonora desert...

posted 4 years, 10 months ago
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