The next big thing in biodiesel is not corn. It's not soybeans. It is the scum of the pond-- algae. CNN explores one Texas farm that is growing algae to use in biodiesel production. Apparently up to 50% of the green substance is oil. Different species are apparently better at one type of fuel over the other as well. So going through the 65,000 species of algae may take some time, but there is a precedent.
The US Department of Energy studied algae as an oil source from 1978 through 1996. However at the time, oil was only $20 a barrel and algae didn't seem cost effective. Gee, let's not plan for the future or anything guys.
The other cool thing is algae doesn't take up a lot of space. Corn only yields 30 gallons of oil per acre. Soybeans yield 50 gallons. In that same acre of space, you can get 100,000 gallons from algae that is grown vertically! And it isn't like we eat algae. We sure do like some corn and soybeans though. So why burn up our food when we can burn some pond scum?
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