Algae for fuel, the new internet bubble.

Would you invest in a company that points a lamp on a solar panel to create electricity? Of course not. Even at 100% efficiency it would be pointless. In this article you will meet a company that is doing a very similar thing.

In the spotlight: BFP International

A promising new Dutch company in the spotlight, some quotes from the website:
“When we speak of biomass with a high energy efficiency balance, it means that the output of energy delivered by the end product is substantially higher than the initial energy needed to produce the biofuel or bioenergy”
Excellent, and then we see the algae page:
BFP International [...]

Algae for fuel. Photobioreactor wake-up call

Some people consider a photobioreactor a good investment for fuel production. In this article,  Kurt Schwindelberger proves that it takes more than 100 years to earn back your investment in a commercial scale photobioreactor if you use it to produce biomass and oil for energy purposes (and if you don’t calculate costs).
 ”Let us first examine the [...]

Measure your photobioreactor’s real production capacity

Don’t believe what algae photobioreactor manufacturers tell about production capacities.  This instrument is designed for outdoor measurement of photo synthetically active radiation (PAR) in natural daylight. It has been specifically designed for agricultural meteorology and studies of crop growth. It will tell you how much photosynthetically active radation is available on a day so you [...]

Algae ripoff - Photobioreactors with outrageous claims

Some photobioreactors won’t even produce 1/10th of what they advertise and to pull out only 50(!) liter (13 gallons) of oil per hour out of algae you may need to invest at least a million dollars. Check the cover article of the recent edition of Biodiesel Magazine and ask yourself it it is a well prepared [...]