This looks like a potential winner. msnbc.msn.com/id/26855814/wid/18298287/
It looks like it might be a good clean-up process as well as a source for the down-stream materials we currently obtain from hydrocarbons. Using it to produce energy seems less likely, because of the expense and the high technology needed, but the by-products may make it a winner.
There are Algae farms cropping up all over from east to west. Oil companies have begun looking at them too. Its serious business turning Algae into fuel. It produces far more per acre than any other plant product. Just do a search on Algae farming. The use plastic bags and ponds, Salt water and fresh water. I have been watching the Algae farms growth. It should put land owners back to farming for food with in a few years. I frankly am sick of paying $6 for potatoes.
Excellent. The common thread running through all these new alternatives is harnessing things which concentrate energy from difuse, unusable sources, into something more directly acessable to our technology.
The article stresses that the energy production may be quite a few years away. I was far more interested in the chemical by-products which will also become more expensive as traditional oil dwindles. This might mean I will still be able to buy a polyester leisure suit for another hundred years… 