Algae tapped for biodiesel production by PetroSun

PetroSun Drilling Inc. has created Algae BioFuels Inc. as a wholly-owned subsidiary to research and develop methods of using algae to produce biofuels. The subsidiary will be based in Arizona and Australia and will research using the algae into biodiesel, ethanol, methanol, methane and even hydrogen, the company says. Previous algae energy research was conducted by the Department of Energy from 1978 until 1996. PetroSun says that research shows that algae might be able to produce 30 times (!) more oil per acre than current crop farming methods. I wonder how much political muscle will be thrown into promoting ethanol when farmers can't compete against little microbes who are producing 3000 percent as much ethanol as they can.

[Source: PetroSun, Yahoo! News]