In the October 29 issue of Chemical and Engineering News, Jeff Johnson
comments on a report from the National Research Council (NRC) concerning
biofuels from algae.
The Department of Energy (DOE) had a robust program for nearly 20 years to develop biofuels from algae. Fortunately, that program ended in 1996 when the DOE concluded that algae produced biofuels were unlikely to be competitive with petroleum.
Under those conditions, it seems strange that the NRC is putting out a confirmation report 16 years later.
As speculation, it may be related to the general NRC program of spending taxpayer money, since the report concludes with a statement that more R&D is needed before the promise of sustainable development of algae biofuels has any chance of being realized.
This is a ridiculous statement. Any Research and Development should be done from the initial concept that it could be a winner rather than a loser. I have already repeatedly said that the use of taxpayer money to fund tremendous amounts of R&D at universities with taxpayer funds is a loser at best.
The Department of Energy (DOE) had a robust program for nearly 20 years to develop biofuels from algae. Fortunately, that program ended in 1996 when the DOE concluded that algae produced biofuels were unlikely to be competitive with petroleum.
Under those conditions, it seems strange that the NRC is putting out a confirmation report 16 years later.
As speculation, it may be related to the general NRC program of spending taxpayer money, since the report concludes with a statement that more R&D is needed before the promise of sustainable development of algae biofuels has any chance of being realized.
This is a ridiculous statement. Any Research and Development should be done from the initial concept that it could be a winner rather than a loser. I have already repeatedly said that the use of taxpayer money to fund tremendous amounts of R&D at universities with taxpayer funds is a loser at best.
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