Jets could be fueled by algae

http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/local/articles/0811altfuels0811.html

A team of researchers at Arizona State University's Polytechnic campus in Mesa is involved in a project to turn oil produced from algae into military-jet fuel.

Qiang Hu and Milton Sommerfeld, directors of the school's Laboratory for Algae Research and Biotechnology, will search for oil-rich strains of algae, evaluate their potential as oil producers and develop a production system that will yield competitively priced oil. UOP LLC, a Honeywell company, is leading the project, which the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is backing with a $6.7 million grant.

"We believe, at a minimum, that 100 barrels of oil per year per acre of algae is achievable," Sommerfeld said.

Hu said he hopes the technology could be commercialized in three to five years. Funding for algae research has been limited, and state and federal support is needed for the technology to be developed quickly, he said. The project is expected to be finished by the end of 2008.

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but the guppies kept clogging the fuel injectors.

The technology clearly has a way to go.

eom

cells on planes, use the electricity generated (80% efficiency is not out of line if the excess heat is used to drive a turbine/generator) to power electric motors to turn the props or turbine. I see it happening even if no one else does.