[FastMover]

Algae, Exxon said, could produce over 2,000 gallons of fuel (7,570 liters) per acre (0.4 hectare) of production per year, compared to 650 gallons (2,460 liters) for palm trees and 450 gallons (1,703 liters) for sugar canes, while corn only yields 250 gallons (946 liters).

I found the production yields quite interesting. The two primary food sources are acutally at the bottom of this list.

http://www.physorg.com/news166781399.html

[FastMover]

Which means that MY pork barrel:

Wash. State Slated for $2 Mil in Algae Biofuels Research

Comment on this post Posted by John Davis – July 12th, 2009

Washington State University is set to get $2 million for its algae-biofuels research, thanks to that state’s senior senator.

This press release from U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-Wash.) says she was able to use her position on the Senate Appropriations Committee to put the money in the fiscal year 2010 Energy and Water Development Appropriations bill:
“This funding will support cutting-edge research that will create jobs and continue to position Washington state as a leader in the clean energy economy,” said Senator Patty Murray. “It provides a shot in the arm for Washington state biofuels research, and will help our country move toward cleaner and more efficient energy use.”
The WSU Algae Biofuels project is a partnership between WSU and the Seattle-based Targeted Growth Inc. It will create high-skill jobs in both Pullman and the Puget Sound area and provide researchers with the resources they need to develop new, energy-efficient algal fuel sources. Algae is a particularly promising candidate for fuel use, as its efficiency in capturing solar energy results in higher productivity per unit area than a traditional biofuel energy crop.
The money passed the Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee and now goes to the full Appropriations Committee before going to the full Senate for consideration.

is better than OTHER pork barrels !

RFB

[billyk]

This link: http://news.cnet.com/8301-11128_3-9966867-54.html details this:
-6000 gallons of ethanol per acre per year. A plant in Mexico is already up and running.

The 2008 USA corn harvest was 153.8 bushels per acre. I will round this off to 154 bushels. A bushel of corn weights 56lbs ---link: http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_much_d...bushel_of_corn
and 21 lbs of corn are needed to make one gallon of ethanol--- link: http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_much_c...lon_of_ethanol. So
154 bushels times 56 pounds = 8624lbs of corn in an acre
8624 lbs divided by 21 lbs = 410 gallons of ethanol production per acre.

The National Corn Growers Association posted information that 24 National Champions grew an average of 310 bushels of corn per acre link: http://www.biofuelsdigest.com/blog2/...spite-weather/

So 310 bushels time 56 pounds = 17360 pounds of corn per acre
17360 pounds divided by 21 = 826 gallons of ethanol production per acre

This pales in comparison to the "posted" algae production figures at this time.

[FastMover]

The production quantity difference is important. But even more important to me is that the algae based fuels would not compete with the food supply, nor would they require soils and land that are important for the generation of the food supply. In fact, the best production areas are those poorly drained wetland basins, tidal flats and other areas with low quality, high volume water supplies. These areas are typically only marginally important for food production (cranberries aside!).

RFB