Biomass Gasification Cannot Supply All Our Energy Needs, But...

Here's an interesting blog post @ Energy Balance that analyses biomass gasification process. One interesting insight is as follows:

"Even at a yield of 10 tonnes/hectare of biomass residue, we need 3.33 x 10^9 hectares or 3.33 x 10^7 km^2 of land to produce it on, which at 33 million km^2 is over twice the area of arable land on earth (15 million km^2) and more than one fifth of the total land area of around 150 million km^2 (30% of the total 500 million km^2 of the surface of this blue planet). Clearly to provide all our energy from biomass is a very tall order, and it is obvious that we cannot simply substitute biomass in matching amount for fossil mass, as supplies of oil, gas and coal begin to wane."

While the analysis is interesting, there is one biomass feedstock that will defy the math - algae. Algae can give biomass yields of anywhere between 100 and 300 T per hectare (macroalgae can give about 70-100 T and microalgae, depending on strains, can give over 200 T per hectare per year under optimal situations. And these do not need arable land...actually, many of the algae do not even need land at all! I'm more and more getting convinced that the ideal combination for biofuels will be algae + gasification.