A very good article, Roger. The ecology of Eastern WA farmlands is crying out for a productive use of excess salt water. Ditto many other parts of Australia. The Australian so-called $50 billion salinity problem just became a $100 billion opportunity. This proves, once again, that problems are not solved by regulators and tightarses who can only say No, but rather, by those who ask, why not?

One question, is there an upper saline limit for algae production? That is, how much higher than sea waters 3.5% saline levels will algae production remain viable?

Good article. What are the other ingredients needed for these algae farms? Nitrates, Nitrites etc and were does that come from? Not knocking the idea but these add to the energy balance of the system? But more than likely with CO2 and sunlight as main ingredients looks hopefull. Economics will determine if it successful in the end as Perseus has alluded to.

I hope it could work, but i think it could be a pipedream.

Some good news and optimism at last. I hope EU demand for oils is going to make our canola growers cheerful.

It's a pleasure to read and learn fresh insights from my scientific colleague Roger Kalla in a well thought through story that happens to relate to other relatively intense discussions going on elswhere on this forum. These all relate to whether and to how, coming on top of increased food, feed, and fibre demand, demand for biofuel is going to bring about major changes on world agriculture these next few decades. This demand on our land and water resources clearly needs to be thought through carefully.

For example Osvaldo E. Sala and others explain how land use is perhaps the most important biodiversity issue.

Global Biodiversity Scenarios for the Year 2100
VOL 287 SCIENCE p 1770 10 MARCH 2000
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/287/5459/1770

"Scenarios of changes in biodiversity for the year 2100 can now be developed based on scenarios of changes in atmospheric carbon dioxide, climate, vegetation, and land use and the known sensitivity of biodiversity to these changes...For terrestrial ecosystems,land-use change probably will have the largest effect, followed by climatechange, nitrogen deposition, biotic exchange, and elevated carbon dioxide concentration."

I must go and see a real estate agent and invest in salt affected lowlands going cheap right now!
GMO Pundit
http://gmopundit.blogspot.com/

I hope oil-from-algae doesn't end up on the scrap heap like a host of others such as hot and cold fusion. There are ways to reduce the conflict between crops for fuels vs food. For starters we could eat less meat given we only need about 100 grams a day of animal protein. Ways could be found make oilseed meal after crushing more palatable to humans. The transesterified oil would go in our cars and the flavour enhanced meal could go in our bellies, not via cows. Dare I say genetic engineering could create hardy crops suited to poor land, as well as the much anticipated yeasts that can ferment cellulose into ethanol. Whatever works is likely to have a large footprint so I don't envisage any biofuel coming from a small area.

Roger Kalla's article is a great example of taking old technology, current problems and providing future solutions. I am sure it will not take too long before the option is lambasted by either minority environmental groups who are more interested about ideological social change than providing real environmental and social benefit or typical government over regulation. Until that happens however lets applaud what clear thinking and common sense can produce.

Australia is a dry continent, with lots of salt water and lots of sun. Large scale algae ponds would be well suited to our relativly flat, under utilised and geologically stable desert and arid regions. What a great opportunity, as perseus has highlighted, to turn a $50 billion salinity problem into a $100 billion gain.

While this new opportunity will not remove the issues relating to dryland salinity in Australia's agricultural regions, predominantly in WA, it does provide unique opportunities to reinvest resources into a highly complex and, despite the rhetoric, a not well understood problem.

I will also mention that the EU's demand for canola oil and bio-fuel has lead to an increased demand for soya beans from Brazil. This has been linked to increased deforestation in the Amazon to clear for extra farm land.

So before anyone knocks the plan just think: burn the algae, save the Amazon. Could almost be a bumper sticker!