Not likely. Regular kerosene is derived from a biological source, after all and that doesn't grow mould in fuel tanks.

The process is quite complex and involves extracting algal oil from the algae by squeezing it in a giant wine press, dissolving it in hexane, or (somewhat ironically) using lots of liquified, pressurised CO2 as a solvent. The extracted oil is then made thin enough to burn efficiently using a process called transesterification. This involves using another alcohol to neutralise the fatty acids and remove glycerin from the fuel, leaving you with an ester of the alcohol and a new alcohol which is your fuel. It isn't alive in any way at all. Scrape the gloop off the top and you've got a useful fuel which has as much in common with algae as unleaded does with a herd of stegosaurus.

I stand corrected.

Fish-fans have known for years how to filter algae out of their tanks. No problem.

As for bacteria, it shouldn't be a problem. After all, it's not bacteria's food we're putting into the tank but its piss, and no organism lives in its own piss. Wine kills yeast, remember!

Specifically corn based ethanol, as subsidised in the US to the tune of $1 a gallon. Already, 20% of the US corn crop goes to bioethanol. There is a global shortage of artificial fertilizer and biofuel growers are out bidding food farmers. This at a time when world grain stocks are at a 30 year low, the price of wheat has doubled, the price of rice risen by 50% , both in a month. The price of hops has risen 500%. Beer could be £4 a pint THIS YEAR. Half the population of the world lives on less than £1 a day. Double the price of food staples and you will get widespread famine. Biofuels are not the primary cause of the shortages, but they do represent the difference between sufficient food and wide spread famine THIS YEAR.

Diesel bug (so called) can grow at the interface between diesel and water. Not a problem for your cooking oil, but it can be for tanks that hold water condensate in the bottom. Biocides are used in recreational boats because of this - the bug slime can block filters and injectors. AIUI aircraft tanks have drains at low points which are regularly checked to drain any water condensate, so it shouldn't apply. Road vehicles don't tend to have fuel tank drains though, I think it's only the rapid turnover of fuel that saves diesel cars/trucks from the bug - if it's there it never has chance to build up.

That line about first generation biofuels pushing up the price of beer has me worried.

Substitute the food for algae now!

Then in 2010 we can think of something else if we need to.

Can you burn the gas from my beer farts?

1. So many people still natter on about the price of petrol per GALLON, especially in the American context. Why? Perhaps most are unaware that an American gallon is significantly smaller than an Imperial gallon:

1 US gallon = 3.7854118 litres

1 Imperial gallon = 4.54609188 litres

So simplistically saying a price per gallon does not translate so easily.

May I suggest moving forward to the last century and using metric measurements (even I, late fifties, had to use the metric system for most of my school days).

2. A pound/dollar per day. What does that mean? A pound a day in Europe would barely fetch a bar of chocolate. In much of the "third world" it would buy a full evening meal of good quality. What a foolish way to assess poverty or wealth.

How about working time to pay for family meal or something?

If its flying on algae then the pilot must be Biggles. OK I'm going back to my corner.

You can't use fossil fuels because it upsets the greens (and beside which, they're running out). Someone works out a way to make fuel from plants (which aren't going to run out) and the greens *still* get upset, this time because growing plants for fuel means that the land can't be used to grow plants for food.

There's a simple way to make sure that the demands for engine fuel and food don't conflict: make the fuel from the *in*edible parts of plants.

Though I'm sure the greens will still find a reason to get upset .....

Are they using olive oil? Which begs the question, where does all the extra virgin olive oil come from?

I thank you!

I know you were being ironic, but really, what do you think the more socially conscious peoples are going to do about it? Launch a massive popular revolution with aging Kalashnikovs and pointy sticks, while the highly developed oppressors immolate them with over-the-horizon airstrikes?

That's just a sophisticated way of saying, "Do what I say or this puppy gets it."

is it just me or does he make more sense every week?

i actually understood what he's said the last few times i'v read his comments.

couldn't branson be cloned and all the hot air and methane be pumped into the engines?

Solution: Seal the house of commons. Attach hot air balloon fleet to roof. Now we only have to wait for a wind in the right direction and we've saved a 747 from flying.

There are places where 1$ or 1£ buys you a great evening meal, accepted.

But life is not made up of evening meals, alas. If acquiring a legal version of Vista necessitates several months of work, your proposal to calculate in 'working time' will shine a very dim light on those places. 'They' don't need Vista? Maybe. But what about healthcare? dental work? retirement benefits? housing? clothing? education? quality education?

Paris, because she inherited more evening meals than she'll ever be able to consume

Perhaps the fuel pipes were blocked by algae.

Coat please. The one with the green stains.

What about the hundreds of thousands of acres of land that Europe pays farmers NOT to grow food on. Maybe we could grow fuel crop on that.

Just convince farmers to grow a crop that isn't already overstocked and they land will be put to use.