Going green: Nation equipped to grow serious amounts of pond scum for fuel

[OKIsItJustMe]

http://www.pnnl.gov/news/release.aspx?id=986

[font face=Serif][font size=5]Going green: Nation equipped to grow serious amounts of pond scum for fuel[/font]

May 21, 2013
Tom Rickey, PNNL, [phone]

[font size=4]Gulf Coast, Southeastern Seaboard especially favorable for algae growth[/font]

[font size=3]RICHLAND, Wash. – A new analysis shows that the nation's land and water resources could likely support the growth of enough algae to produce up to 25 billion gallons of algae-based fuel a year in the United States, one-twelfth of the country's yearly needs.

The findings come from an in-depth look at the water resources that would be needed to grow significant amounts of algae in large, specially built shallow ponds. The results were published in the May 7 issue of Environmental Science and Technology, published by the American Chemical Society.

"While there are many details still to be worked out, we don't see water issues as a deal breaker for the development of an algae biofuels industry in many areas of the country," said first author Erik Venteris of the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.

For the best places to produce algae for fuel, think hot, humid and wet. Especially promising are the Gulf Coast and the Southeastern seaboard.

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http://dx.doi.org/10.1021%2Fes304135b

[patrice]

1. Do mosquitos like it? Can it grow in a stock tank? It's dryish here in the summer. People who haven'

t been along the southern coast along the Gulf don't know what humid really is. Though some people say it is, I don't think it is humid here.