Alternative Energy Fuels

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To grow enough algae to supply the world’s energy needs would mean covering a space one-quarter the size of the Egyptian desert, according to a Kinsey & Company report cited by Pyle. That’s roughly 250,000 square miles, which is almost the size of Texas—an extraordinary undertaking.

Still, there are ample reasons to investigate algae's potential. Unlike corn-based ethanol, which takes almost as much energy to make as it produces and does little to curb CO₂ emissions, algae can be produced more efficiently and absorbs about as much carbon dioxide as it emits.

Corn’s output is about 6 million tons per acre per year, says Pyle. Algae produces upwards of 30 million tons per acre per year. “That’s the buzz about algae,” he said.

Making bio-fuel from algae also is unlikely to affect food supplies and prices as much as using corn for ethanol has been blamed for doing.

“It’s hard not to get excited about algae’s potential,” said Paul Dickerson, chief operating officer of the Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy. “Algae can flourish in non-arable land or in dirty water, and when it does flourish, its potential oil yield per acre is unmatched by any other terrestrial feedstock.”

The problem, in Pyle's view, is that Congress, prodded by powerful agricultural lobbyists, is providing huge subsidies to corn growers to produce ethanol.

“By continuing to subsidize mostly the existing technologies instead of emerging alternatives,” said Pyle, “the government runs the risk of discouraging a real future of renewable energy."

Pyle's proposal: Get Congress to back away from favoring any technology—whether ethanol, biodiesel, or fuels from algae—and stop mandating the use of one alternative fuel over others. "A growing competitive market should separate winners from losers," he said.

Sapphire is funded by venture firms ARCH Ventures and Venrock, and by Britain’s Wellcome Trust. It's also working with the Energy Department, the University of California at San Diego, and the Scripps Research Institute.

The U.S. desperately needs an energy policy that encourages both conservation and alternatives to fossil fuels—everything from solar and hydrogen power to synthetic organisms that might one day be designed to make fuel.

But algae may be one of the earlier contenders for a technological fix for our energy woes because it uses the existing infrastructure of refineries, pipes, gasoline pumps, and internal-combustion engines.

Algae does not solve the problem of pollution from petroleum-based products, but it does have a cleaner over-all carbon footprint than oil from the ground, Pyle said.

Sapphire expects to be producing 10,000 barrels of algae oil a day in five years, which is about what an offshore oil platform produces, and 200,000 barrels a day by 2022. (By comparison, Chevron produces about 2 million barrels a day in its worldwide operations, Pyle said.)

Rome survived another 300 years after missing the significance of Heron’s invention, but eventually the empire unraveled as its economy grew stagnant and its technological achievements stalled. This made it more vulnerable to turmoil within and attack from outside.

We won’t have 300 years to coast on our current sources of energy and technologies. This is why we need to be nimble and adaptive, like the British in 1710, and not like the Romans in AD 60.

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