Research suggests some strains of algae can produce more than 10 times more fuel per acre than the soybeans used to make biodiesel or the corn used to make ethanol.<\/p>\n
And because algae can be grown in ponds in the desert, the acreage devoted to it would not interfere with food production.<\/p>\n
But there is another kind of acreage in which algae can play a role, and it is a kind of acreage that Pennsylvania has in abundance \u2014 that is the acres and acres of coal and coal waste from current operations and its Industrial Revolution legacy.<\/p>\n
And that is part of what interested three companies recently provided with a $175,000 grant from the Commonwealth Financing Authority to study where to build a plant that would “gasify algae mixed with coal and\/or coal waste into a cleaner, more efficient gasoline, diesel and jet fuel which could be sold for less than today’s prices,” according to a press release from state Rep. David Kessler, D-130th Dist.<\/p>\n