Michael Giberson
The gold in the oceans and the gold in algal biofuel have much in common. You can develop a production process in each case, but the capital and operating costs for producing each are far too high for them to be commercially viable.
I don’t begrudge anyone trying in either case to improve upon the processes. But can we please do it with a minimum of fanfare and press releases?
That’s Robert Rapier at R-Squared Energy Blog, reacting to a news story about Solix Biofuels indicating the company was about to begin “full scale commercial operation” of its plant. Apparently in this case, “full scale commercial operation” yields about 0.4 barrels of algal oil a day.
The peak-oil crackpots are heavily, emotionally invested in their apocalytic visions of the post-oil future. So, it isn’t too surprising that they don’t want to hear about the technologies that will render their raptures moot.
Rapier has always struck me as working on the side of technology and science. He sees peak oil as a problem, but I don’t recall him being into apocalyptic visions of the post-oil future. In fact, I think he is working on the development of “technologies that will render [apocalyptic visions] moot,” just presumably not algae for biofuel.
I can’t respect anybody who puts any stock in Hubbert curves. If Rapier does not, then I owe him an apology.