Fact of the Month: April 2009

Biofuels from Algae

• Global consumption of oil: 85 million barrels a day
• Global aviation industry’s use of oil: 5 million barrels of oil a day.
• Global shipping industry’s use of oil: 7.5 million barrels of oil a day.
  
  
• Assuming replacement with algae-based biofuels (36 tonnes per hectare):
  • Land needed to fuel the global aviation fleet: 65,000 sq km (about the size of Ireland)
  • Land needed to fuel all global shipping: 100,000 sq km
  • Land needed to replace the entire global oil supply: 1.1 million square kilometres
    
    
• Total world farm and pasture land: 43 million square kilometres
• Land used to raise livestock for meat and dairy: 30 million square kilometres (70%)
• Land newly available if everyone ate a vegan diet one day a week: 4 million square kilometres

Sources:
Green fuel for the airline industry. New Scientist, 13 August 2008.
Farmland is eating up the world's wildernesses. 28 million square kilometres is covered in pasture and 15 million square km is used to grow crops. New Scientist, Feb 9, 2008.
Livestock’s Long Shadow. United Nations, 2007.