A Biofuel Process to Replace All Fossil Fuels

We knew it would come some day. From Technology Review we have an interesting article. The brain trust that is concentrated in the Cambridge, Massachusetts area has come up with a procedure to make 20,000 gallons of biofuel per acre per year (which could become price competitive with current fossil fuels). From the article:

"Joule Biotechnologies grows genetically engineered microorganisms in specially designed photobioreactors. The microorganisms use energy from the sun to convert carbon dioxide and water into ethanol or hydrocarbon fuels (such as diesel or components of gasoline). The organisms excrete the fuel, which can then be collected using conventional chemical-separation technologies."

I hope that Joule Biotech can create the same effect on a large scale. It's all about yields in a small amount of space.