seeder Posted December 20, 2013 #1 Share Posted December 20, 2013 Government Scientists Created Crude Oil from Algae in Mere Minutes Be excited, Earthlings, because science has a surprise for you. Engineers at the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory have devised a way to turn algae into crude oil in less than an hour. That oil can then be refined into gasoline that can run engines. Excited yet? Try wrapping your head around the implications of a breakthrough like this. http://gizmodo.com/government-scientists-created-crude-oil-from-algae-in-m-1485731339 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShadowSot Posted December 20, 2013 #2 Share Posted December 20, 2013 Yeah, I've been hearing about this. I wonder if this would make for a pollution neutral system. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sir Wearer of Hats Posted December 20, 2013 #3 Share Posted December 20, 2013 Well this will be "disproven" or a "fatal and/or lethal flaw" will be found about this process in the near future, can't have someone getting in on of the Oil Industry. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wickian Posted December 20, 2013 #4 Share Posted December 20, 2013 If the process can be mass produced in such a way as to get a net gain in energy, then that is pretty amazing. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShadowSot Posted December 20, 2013 #5 Share Posted December 20, 2013 Well this will be "disproven" or a "fatal and/or lethal flaw" will be found about this process in the near future, can't have someone getting in on of the Oil Industry. Actually the Oil Industry can use this to their benefit. No longer having to pay import costs they can set up refinery using this process here in the States, reduce the profits by some negligible amount and make just as much if not more a return on their revenue. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
seeder Posted December 20, 2013 Author #6 Share Posted December 20, 2013 (edited) Hope we dont run short of natural algae as a result, tho they do say the can use the waste to regrow it . Edited December 20, 2013 by seeder Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShadowSot Posted December 20, 2013 #7 Share Posted December 20, 2013 Hope we dont run short of algae as a result The idea would be you farm this algae. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frank Merton Posted December 20, 2013 #8 Share Posted December 20, 2013 Not necessarily good news, and the price of oil will have to go up quite a bit to work, but I'm not surprised to see it in the works. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Space Commander Travis Posted December 20, 2013 #9 Share Posted December 20, 2013 The trouble with all these marvellous breakthroughs is, how much of the new wonder substance (in this case, algae) would they need to produce oil in a similar volume to how it is today? How would they produce it on that kind of scale? Would it be even possible to do so? Would we be seeing oil companies moving into to and wrapping up the algal business between them, so it would just shift the conflict for resources to another area? Would they be able to farm algae on the scale needed? What repercussions for the ecosystem would result from that? That's always the question with all these magic solutions. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
seeder Posted December 20, 2013 Author #10 Share Posted December 20, 2013 Kelp is considered an algae too, we really cant screw with kelp http://exploretheseafloor.net.au/the-science/kelp-climate-change/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShadowSot Posted December 20, 2013 #11 Share Posted December 20, 2013 Kelp is considered an algae too, we really cant screw with kelp http://exploretheseafloor.net.au/the-science/kelp-climate-change/ Of course not. We already do vat farming of algae, just need to do so on a larger scale. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
toast Posted December 20, 2013 #12 Share Posted December 20, 2013 Even if this sytem work, it requires chemicals, a pressure of 3.500PSI and a temperature of 350°C and these characteristics are influencing the ecological system in a considerable negative way. A mass production of algae based oil requires a huge amount of farmed algae and it must be taken into consideration that the farming will be of additional destabilizing effect to the oceanic ecological system that´s still under attack since decades. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frank Merton Posted December 20, 2013 #13 Share Posted December 20, 2013 This will happen only if two prior conditions are not met. First, oil fails to last as long as expected and second oil replacements do not succeed. I find both conditions are unlikely, but it doesn't hurt to have a shortstop out there. More than likely this will become in future a source of specialty oils. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Space Commander Travis Posted December 20, 2013 #14 Share Posted December 20, 2013 I think the way they should be looking at going really is, rather than just trying to find a substitute for oil, look to alternatives to needing oil at all for the uses it's most used for, e.g. transport, and that way they'd probably be able to maintain enough oil reserves, or some practical substitute, for those uses where something like oil is really necessary. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George Ford Posted December 20, 2013 #15 Share Posted December 20, 2013 (edited) Well, if we ever go to live on Mars and we find water up there then this science will be totally needed 110%. Not just for fuel, but to make plastic, and then all they need is a 3D printer (or extruder) and they can build pretty much anything they want, including bio domes, habitats, gears, wheels, chairs, wings, clothes, toothbrushes and adult toys. Edited December 20, 2013 by bulveye Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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