Pond Slime Jet Propulsion

When I was eight years old, I could never have imagined that while looking for frogs and newts and wading up to my thighs green pond slime, I was slipping and sliding through the fuel of the future.

But jump forward a few decades and that is exactly what the Carbon Trust is proposing with its biofuels challenge, which aims to make use of pond slime in the production of algae-based biofuels.

The trust is prepared to back up this research with grants of up to £6 million.

The new scheme, called the Algae Biofuels Challenge, is hoping to increase interest in biofuels made from various kinds of algae, with the ultimate aim of making it commercially viable by 2020.

This new initiative comes after all the recent controversy surrounding the growing of biofuel crops and their perceived lack of long-term viability.

On top of the £6 million from the Carbon Trust, research and development cash will also be injected by the Department of Transport, who are hoping that these new fuels may allow Britain to meet its cabin emissions targets.

The Trust considers that Algae based Biofuels development will become viable and that Britain has expertise to make it work not only experimentally but also in the commercial arena.

The first challenge for anyone wanting to share the available cash is to put forward their suggestions as to exactly which of the many variations of Algae are most likely to reduce viable biofuels.

One drawback as far as the UK is concerned is that the Trust considers that it may never be viable to grow suitable amounts of Algae in Britain’s cold, low sunlight climate.

They believe that although UK domestic Algae may be suitable for biofuels, they would need to be transported to tropical climates to have the best possible growing conditions to become commercially viable.

It is believed that biofuels produced from pond slime could possibly be used in jet fuels at a ratio of perhaps 12% and in road vehicles at around 6%.