Algae can produce 3,000 gallons of liquid fuel per acre in a year

So says this Q&A at San Diego Center for Algae Biotechnology.

Now, what if you just produced the algae for pyrolysis and then run the products on a Stirling Engine that produced engine to recharge onboard batteries in a vehicle?  ( that's a mouthful )

During the Energy Crisis in the seventies, Ford experimented with Stirling engines.  If memory serves, they are 30% more efficient than gasoline powered cars.  The downside was that they took too long to power up.

Now, if you were to put the Stirling engine in a hybrid, you no longer have to worry about power up times.  Run on the battery until it needs recharging.  Turn on the Stirling Engine to recharge and to run the vehicle.  When the battery is recharged, power down.

Stirling engines need only a heat source.  You can burn something, like biofuels, or multiple biofuels, that can create the heat.  Pyrolysis can produce the biofuels from algae.  Those would be syngas and biocrude.  Biocrude equals number 2 fuel oil and syngas can be burned directly.  Either or both of these can serve as fuel for the engine.

If the 30% figure Ford got holds up, then a 25 mpg car can get 33 mpg equivalent.  At 3,000 gallons per year, that would mean upwards of 100k miles worth of fuel per year per acre.