It doesn't sound very energy efficient in the article.  They say it takes high heat and high pressures for the process, both of those will require energy input.  It will be interesting to know what the energy ROI is on a commercial scale.  

I'm with John on this one, if we want to maintain our standard of living, we are going to need all the energy sources we can find in the future, maybe this can play a role.   I would assume that a commercial scale operation would require growing the algae outside of a lab, since algae requires light for photosynthesis, we are still going to need land to capture the sunlight.  Anyone know what yeild of algae per acre I can get out here in big swamp country?

I'll look into trading my combine for a boat, and start undraining the sloughs.