Quote:
Originally Posted by Old Tele man
Weeks? Nope, during our LONG HOT summer days, probably only hours for regrowth to begin, with a full pond scum in days!
That stuff is ALIVE ! ! !
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That pond scum is also a) not very thick; and b) mostly water.
Comes down to basic physics/chemistry/biology. There's only so much energy in incoming sunlight - about 700 W/m^2. Photosynthesis is not very efficient at capturing the energy - way under 10%. (Most PV panels are better.)
That's not saying this couldn't be a useful process, as part of say a sewage treatment plant. It's just not going to be a replacement for petroleum, because those oil deposits represent millions of years of collection.