Weeds in the algae garden - A source of biomass for the algae-to-biofuels program

Despite decades of effort, viable algal biofuels remain a distant vision. High-lipid microalgae for biodiesel is plagued by low productivity, poor biomass quality, and pond instability, so conversion of non-specific algal biomass into other fuels is now the favored approach. Nevertheless, with low productivity and high costs, microalgae cannot provide the annual tonnage of biomass needed for fuel production. An alternative source of easily produced algal biomass has been available for decades. Algal turf scrubbing (ATS) robustly cultivates indigenous algae in an open flume photobioreactor. It is a proven, cost-effective, point- and non point-source treatment method for recycling the aquatic nutrient pollution whose levels threaten to exceed sustainable earth system boundaries. Using ATS to reverse nutrient loading in eutrophic waters would produce copious algal biomass at essentially no cost, for biofuel production or for development into other bioproducts.