By that same Wikipedia link, mountaintop removal accounts for less
that 5% of coal produced in the US.

Listen, the algae don't care where the carbon dioxide comes from.
The ethanol pilot plant is set to use carbon dioxide from a Dow
chemical plant. If the technology takes off, it could use more
carbon neutral sources of CO2 like conventional ethanol
fermentation, or biogas.

Best Wishes,
--
Gabriel Espinosa
Mechanical Engineering
University of Florida


On Tue Jun 30 12:54:48 EDT 2009, Peter Hoy <[log in to unmask]>
wrote:

> This is also a step backwards because it encourages the continued
> use of
> coal-fired power and presents yet another opportunity for
> greening an
> industry that cannot be greened. For those that don't yet know,
> there is no
> such thing as 'clean coal', even if the carbon dioxide is used to
> grow algae
> as a biofuel feedstock.
>
> Mountain top removal
> mining<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mountaintop_removal_mining>will
> continue to be a part of the picture no matter what improvements
> we
> make to the point source of air emissions. It's interesting that
> Dow
> Chemical is growing algae as a feedstock. Still, I don't think
> the coal
> industry deserves any kind of green compliments.
>
> Best,
>
> Peter Hoy
> Loyola University Chicago
>
> On Tue, Jun 30, 2009 at 11:19 AM, Scott Edmundson
> <[log in to unmask]>wrote:
>
>> Algal energy goes beyond biodiesel...but is ethanol a step
>> backwards?
>>
>> 'metabolically enhanced' blue-green algae (cyanobacteria) for
>> ethanol
>> production.
>>
>>
>>
>> http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/29/business/energy-environment/29biofuel.html
>>
>>
>> http://www.greenbiz.com/news/2009/06/30/dow-and-algenol-partner-co2-ethanol-pilot-project
>>
>>
>>
>> the company website:
>> http://www.algenolbiofuels.com/default.html