The Scientist article "Biofuels for Fuel Cells" by Myrna E. Watanabe was dated November 11, 2002. For all I know the writer got his basic ideas from me -- from all my persistent rants on usenet, and it would be cool if he did. It would very uncool if he is the only person in the world besides myself who has successfully assimilated these ideas....

.... anyways the use of biofuels on a national scale, either for conventional vehicles or fuel cell cars, is just one piece of the puzzle. It solves the energy storage problem, ie. liquid fuel that needs only a featherweight mobile container, and that does not contribute to the weight of the vehicle. That advantage alone defeats hydrogen in favor of bioethanol.

The second, and perhaps most important, piece of the puzzle is the bioethanol feedstock. This must come substantially from ocean biomass, so-called "Benthic Biomass". Only the oceans, with vast surface area, could produce sufficient renewable fuel for the transportation market. The major hurdle to overcome is the breeding of a high-cellulose seaweed, which to my knowledge does not currently exist in nature. Just as food crops have been selectively bred for centuries, we must also selectively breed cellulose content in seaweed. This is a poorly researched subject, and the techniques for breeding aquatic plants in a controlled fashion, on the order of millions upon millions of specimens, must still be developed. I'll give you an example:

Sweet peas grow in the wild, but the peas are shriveled in appearance. Also, when ripe the pods open and spill the peas on the ground so that the next generation will take root. Decades ago a laboratory planted 1.5 million Sweet Pea plants, and out of those found 6 plants with round, smooth peas instead of the wild shrivelled trait. They then took those 6 plants and bred a further 10 million plants before finding a single individual whose pods did not open. This allowed mechanical harvesting to take place without spilling the peas all over the ground. Nearly all the peas you buy in a grocery store are descended from this single plant.

It takes many years to perform this type of selective breeding, and for seaweed that is being bred for high-cellulose it is made more difficult by the marine environment. How do you prevent unwanted pollination? How do you isolate breeding pairs when millions of plants occupy the same saltwater tank and the water current will tend to carry & disperse any particle matter in the direction of flow? Would removal of the stamins be sufficient? These techniques are poorly documented in North America. Alot of work needs to be done.