content: I should have been more clear. I completely agree that ethanol from corn is dumb. I have been intrigued by algae as a potential biodiesel feedstock. Algae addresses most (all?) of the concerns raised above. As for the cost/complexity of converting veggie oil into ready to use biodiesel... people have been doing it in their backyard for years.  Given the apparent awareness of algae as a possible feedstock and the simplicity (relative to petrodiesel production) of creating a market ready product, I am wondering what is missing to bring this to market scale (reasonable cost). My guess is that it is hard to compete with a heavily subsidized 100 year old global industry.