Comments some jerk has made

Algae

I've read the article you linked, and even the dubious author admits that sewage plants are an commerically viable source, as is being proved in NZ now.

Such plants already are in the business of growing algae, but obviously the process is not optimized for it at the moment. With peak oil, ideas about what is commerically viable are going to be in flux. I don't advocate massive palm oil plantations necessarily, but any feedstock that is a carbon sink is an improvement over pumping it out of the ground, especially when the resulting product can fuel all stages of production and transportation. On Politicians are still pumping biodiesel posted 2 years, 1 month ago 40 Responses

Ignorant

Who is the clueless one here? From the press release announcing the first TDI Jetta in 1998:

...With the help of a special diesel catalytic converter, which further reduces NOx, carbon monoxide and hydrocarbons, the Jetta TDI meets the strict clean air standards set by the state of California....

Needless to say, a 2006 Jetta TDI is cleaner yet, and also includes a cat, along with a sophisticated EGR system to control NOx levels, which is about as far as you can go without ultra low sulfur diesel.

Now that USLD is here, with the introduction of particulate traps and SCR as in the Bluetec system, the exhaust coming out of a modern diesel can be cleaner particulate-wise than the air going in, as Mercedes demonstrated with the Bluetec E-Class and a napkin held to the tailpipe.  

The cold hard fact is that a diesel will outperform a similar gasoline engine by 20% in a comprable drivecycle measuring CO2 emissions. Higher compression ratio, no throttling losses. It's thermodynamics, people. Get used to diesels. The 2009 Accord with the i-DTEC engine is going to be a big seller.

I'd highly reccommend reading Green Car Congress for a more balanced view of developments in this area.On Politicians are still pumping biodiesel posted 2 years, 1 month ago 40 Responses