Experts are ramping up their efforts to squeeze fuel out of a promising new organism, pond scum.

A report on the News24 site notes that algae has the ability to gobble up carbon dioxide while living in places not needed for food crops. While no one has found a way to mass produce cheap fuel from algae yet, the race is on. ExxonMobil said earlier this year that it will sink $600m into algae research in a partnership with a California biotechnology company. 'I think it's very realistic. I don't think it's going to take 20 years. It's going to take a few years,' said chemical engineer George Philippidis, Director of Applied Research at Florida International University in Miami.
Full report on the News24 site


But US experts warn that rules governing biofuel production encourage deforestation and mean the technology is therefore a 'false' method of reducing greenhouse gas emissions, says a report in The Times. In a study published last week in Science, a group of 13 scientists have called for the rules, which contain a loophole exempting carbon dioxide emitted by bioenergy regardless of its source, to be overturned. 'The error is serious, but readily fixable,' said lead researcher Timothy Searchinger, of Princeton University. The study called for the issue to be addressed in the climate treaty that nations around the world are hoping to sign at the Copenhagen summit.
Full report in The Times
Science Study