Stan Beer
Wednesday, 04 March 2009 04:17
Opinion and Analysis
Page 2 of 2
“Making
biodiesel from algae removes the issue of competing land use because
the facilities would not be established on land that might otherwise be
used to grow food and the algal farm has a very low environmental
impact in comparison to crops that are grown for biodiesel,” Dr Beer
said.
“Our study also found that the
establishment of a 500 hectare algal biodiesel plant in a rural area
might create up to 45 jobs and provide opportunities to diversify in
the agricultural sector.”
The CSIRO Energy Transformed Flagship
is working with a number of partners, both national and international,
to develop a strong algal biofuel research program.
“The
Flagship’s research has made significant progress in a short time and
our extensive biofuels program will continue to develop solutions that
result in a secure fuel future for Australia,” Dr Beer said.
Despite
the global interest in the production of biodiesel from algae, further
research is required to create a viable industry with widespread uptake
and impact.
“Although the findings of our study are very
promising, challenges still exist in relation to cost, infrastructure
needs and the scale of production required to make algal plants
feasible,” Dr Beer said.
“We see biodiesel from algae as one potential option for sustainable fuel production amongst a range of other technologies.”
The
paper, Greenhouse gas sequestration by algae – energy and greenhouse
gas life cycle studies, is authored by CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric
researchers Peter K. Campbell, Tom Beer and David Batten.