— Thomas Brück , Professor , Technical University of Munich

43 oil from algae to be used as a biofuel would yield far larger quantities of fuel than the same acreage of landbased plants , it requires significant resources to do so . Algae needs enormous amounts of water and nutrients in order for production to compete with crude oil , and the space required poses a considerable challenge in itself . According to Power Technology , Kevin Flynn , a marine biology professor at the University of Swansea , said in 2017 : “ Simulations of microalgal biofuel production show that , to approach the

10 % of EU transport fuels expected to be supplied by biofuels , ponds three times the area of Belgium would be needed .” He added that , “ For the algae in these ponds to produce biofuel , it would require fertiliser equivalent to 50 % of the current total annual EU crop plant needs .” As with so many things in the sustainability space , we ’ re waiting for technology to provide the answer to these challenges , but those answers may be closer than you ’ d think .

Power Technology noted that Synthetic Genomics , a partner of

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