One of the alternative fuels highlighted by the Journal (in this write-up and this video) is green algae ethanol, one of the principal benefits of which is that it doesn’t necessarily require arable land. Fed Ex CEO Fred Smith was chatting up green algae at the Cato Institute’s Milton Friedman Prize dinner last month (honoring 23-year-old Yon Goicoechea, leader of a Venezuelan pro-democracy student group). As you can imagine, Smith has an abiding interest in keeping energy costs down, and he’s no environmental Pollyanna. More on Smith’s remarks later.
One of the interesting things about green algae is that, if you cut off its supply of sulfur, instead of producing oxygen as a byproduct of photosynthesis, it produces hydrogen gas.