what ever happend to using Chlorella as fuel either directly or by Fischer-Tropsch synthesis to gasoline?

Question

I have an old book - mid 60s and it talks about nuke, coal, hydro, bio mass - wood, sugarbeat , corn and Chlorella. And it talks about how one could use Chlorella as a fuel directly or convert to gasoline using the Fischer-Tropsch synthesis (or newer methods if avaliable.

Answer 1

It looks as though chlorella has been left behind in that, although it is still of research interest ( for example http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/klu/japh/2005/00000017/00000005/00008701 ) nothing of industrial scale has happened yet, unlike the others you mentioned. The Fischer Tropsch process is interesting in that any hydrocarbon material (fossil fuel or biological) can be used as the feedstock for the preliminary synthesis gas preparation process before the actual Fischer Tropsch stage. Plants have been built with coal and natural gas as feedstock but not as yet, I believe, with biomass as feedstock. The process favours diesel as a product but does produce a range of fractions. From an engineering point of view the processes involved are complex and challenging and development is required before many will feel comfortable that it is a technology meeting modern standards.

Answer 2

still apparently of interest in 1993
http://www.osti.gov/energycitations/product.biblio.jsp?osti_id=5932031

oil price fluctuations often kill pilot projects though, it looks good at one particular price , then they drop and funding is cancelled, then some new form of accounting is introduced and it starts to look good again. I read in new scientist recently that there are plans for using extremophiles to clean up power-station CO2 emissions in a pilot plant where they happen to have a lot of spare sunlight nearby. They need to produce biofuel there too to make it attractive.

Answer 3

Any idea of using non gasoline fuels get buried by rich share holders of the oil companies.