The global demand for biodiesel is expected to top 10 billion gallons per year by 2015. Currently 30 countries have implemented biofuel targets and are blending biodiesel with regular fuel.

The demand for fuel (or plastics) from biomass competes with food. Cornell University experts calculated that powering an average US car for one year with biodiesel or ethanol would require 11 acres of farmland, which would otherwise produce food for seven people.

The Brazilian team has successfully implemented its first unit in Porto Alegre, Brazil in 2008 and while the project is in its initial phase, the technical and financial capacity to convert greenhouse gases into the raw material for these three basic needs has generated the necessary research funds to perfect this pathway that would get the debate on biofuels from algae on a promising track.

Petroleum, refineries and petrochemistry should inspire chemical engineers to pursue comparable production methods for derivatives from complex biomass. Just like petroleum gets cracked into 100,000 different molecules, biomass should not be produced in stand-alone silos, leaving multiples volumes as waste behind.