That's true, but it's not universally applicable. You can't make plastic out of sun light (directly, anyways). You can't make JP-8 directly either. Liquid fuels will be important for quite a while because they are very energy dense, much more so than batteries. The key is coupling them with efficient engines that don't waste so much of that energy.
Algae may also improve on that. The chart doesn't show it. I wonder how it would compare. Obviously not as well but the liquid fuel thing...
Yeah, they can. They're a versatile lot, the algae. The trick, of course, is doing it economically, which up to now has been elusive. There are quite a few players in the field, however, and if biofuels are going to be a success financially, algae seems like it has the best chance. We'll see.
Crash Course Chapter 17 | Chris Martenson Interesting bit on ERoEI(Energy returned over Energy Invested). Probably too simple for you tripp, but it gave me a good chuckle.
