BlankNREL and MIT and others (who should know, and are somewhat
reliable) are telling us that Algae will produce a minimum of 5000
gallons per year per acre of biodiesel.
After reading this, I went to get some Java and on return my PC
screensaver had kicked in. It was a satellite shot of Western
Mexico and Baja California, and conspicuous is the "green
anomaly" - the area at the top of the Gulf of Cortez, where the
Colorado River enters the Gulf. A vast area of shallow water here
is always colored bright green - from the Algae. The Colorado
river by this time is as thick as mud, and it must be prime
algae-feritlizer. The water is so brightly colored here compared
to the dark blue of the ocean that it is strikingingly beautiful.
The average temperature here is extremely hot, even for Mexico -
100F in January is common.
Doing a rough calculation of the area of the Algae bloom, it works
out to about 10 thousand square miles. There are 640 acres per
mi^2 so this over 6 million acres of intense algae in perpetual
year-round bloom. Even using the most conservative figure of 5000
gallons/acre that should produce over 30 billion gallons yearly,
and perhaps 60 billion due to the prime location. If the wholesale
price is a buck-per ... well...
Who says that Mexico has an endemic debt problem?
Jones
