Algae and Pond scum are never far from the headlines

This isn't even directly political.Earlier in the year when fuel prices were sky high several start-up companies appeared headed to successfully market fuel made from algae .When fuel costs hover in the stratosphere all kinds of alternatives are seen as possibly profitable. In January both Japan and Continental airways test flew a jet partly powered by fuel brewed from algae. We have the technology but is it practical or even desirable?
Unfortunately one of the leaders in this new endeavor went bankrupt after being unable to find sufficient financial backing to continue.

The drop in the cost of traditional fuel was one factor. With out the incredibly high costs of earlier in the year these expensive alternatives are not seen as wise investments. But the startup was hit hard by the economic crisis and by the decline in petroleum prices from their 2008 peaks, which took much of the bloom off the biofues rose.

Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and NASA with slightly different approaches and solid funding are now entering the fray. Yes, DARPA the military research group that brought us such things as the internet and the driverless car competition(my personal favorite)

DARPA’s biofuels program explores energy alternatives and fuel efficiency efforts in a bid to reduce the military's reliance on traditional fuel. For an alternative to be viable, the fuel must be produced at a cost that is economically competitive with current supply costs.

Science Applications International Corporation (SAI) has been contracted by DARPA to develop a jet fuel that is affordable from aqua-cultural and agricultural feedstock materials.

The NASA plan is quit snazzily called OMEGA which stands for “offshore membrane enclosures for growing algae”. This is a process described as putting wastewater and algae in large plastic bags and letting them float out to sea, it will provide good growing conditions for the algae, which will clean up the mess in the bag and produce oil for biofuels.
Given the high costs of research and the uncertainties of the market perhaps this will speed this effort .Still one has to wonder what volume of area on land or in the ocean would be needed to produce massive amounts of fuel .What will be displaced from it’s present location to make way for this. Massive bags of composting biofuel mix floating on the ocean or large areas of harvested algae will have an environmental impact of their own.