WITH THE INCREASING INTEREST in biodiesel as an alternative to petrodiesel, many have looked at the possibility of growing more oilseed crops as a solution to the problem of peak oil. There are two problems with this approach: first, growing more oilseed crops would displace the food crops grown to feed mankind. Second, traditional oilseed crops are not the most productive or efficient source of vegetable oil. Micro-algae is, by a factor of 8 to 25 for palm oil. and a factor of 40 to 120 for rapeseed, the highest potential energy yield temperate vegetable oil crop. Michael Briggs at the Univ. of N. Hampshire Biodiesel group estimates that using open. outdoor, racetrack ponds, only 15,000 square miles could produce enough algae to meet all of the USA's ground transportation needs. Transportation accounts for 67% of US oil consumption according to the Atlantic Monthly, July/August 2005. We'll say more about the 15,000 square mile number below. If all of this land were in one rectangular piece, it would be 120 miles by 125 miles—about 1/7th of the area of the state of Colorado.

Gallons of Oil per	Acre per Year
Corn	18
Soybeans	48
Safflower	83
Sunflower	102
Rapeseed	127
Oil Palm	635
Micro Algae	5000-15000

· Under optimum growing conditions micro-algae will produce up to 4 lbs./sq. ft./year or 15,000 gallons of oil/acre/year. Micro-algae are the fastest growing photosynthesizing organisms. They can complete an entire growing cycle every few days.

· One quad (1015 BTU or 7.5 billion gal.) of biodiesel could be produced on 200,000 ha of desert land (equivalent to 772 sq. mi., roughly 500,000 acres). (To produce one quad from a rapeseed crop would require 58 million acres or 90,000 sq. mi.)