The process is called thermal depolymerization and it can take sewage, trash, any bio waste and turn it into oil, charcoal, and methane to run the plant. This is done by changing world technologies that have a couple plants that do this. We need more plants like them because we got a lot of waste to convert into energy.

Shell spent 6 billion dollars on a high tech oil rig that grounded in Alaska. Now imagine that money being spent on biofuels instead.

Questions: 1. How much energy does it take to convert the algae to oil? Is the process energy efficient? Does it produce more energy than it uses? 2. What is estimated the price per gallon of the final refined gasoline product? 3. How much energy is used to grow and harvest the algae? How fast can the algae be produced? Where will a refinery get enough algae to convert to oil? It sounds like there will need to be vast algae farms built to supply the refinery.

Shhhh... don't tell Rockefeller

1. Is it usable in cars just like this one in the movie? 2. If not, how much time it takes to bring it into a standart fuel form? 3. How big are the machines to produce it? 4. How many gallons you can make a day? 5. Do you need an only specific kind of Algae? 6. Where do you get the Algae from? 7. How much Algae (kg OR liters) you need to bring it into one litter of bio-crude? (or gasloine)

Hi! This is amazing! (And being a former Washingtonian, it's always awesome to read things from the PNNL and good ol' Richland!). I did some very quick, back of the napkin math, and made a lot of heavy assumptions. Assuming that gasoline and diesel consumption in the US is approximately 137 million gallons/60 million gallons respectively, and that you're extracting the same amount of gasoline and diesel from a barrel of algae crude as a typical barrel of crude, it seems like that means you could grow all the algae needed to supplant current US gasoline and diesel consumption on approximately ~40 million acres of land, or roughly, 80% of the state of Kansas. Even if the extraction was half, or a 1/3rd, of what could be pulled from a barrel of crude, that's still something that could be produced in the United States, in a few key farm states. Or, potentially, in places where we don't currently grow (ie, California or Texas deserts). Is my math way off/way too optimistic?

I’d love to try this, but I’d probably blow myself up, however I did convert my old Camaro to run on gasoline, alcohol, or any combination of the two. The 1980’s computer that ran the car wasn’t up to snuff so I built an Arduino based ecu that uses open source engine management software, the rest of the parts I needed were all off the shelf / junkyard. And I had to get permission from the state to make alcohol (with a denaturing agent added). And for about a year I’ve been running the car on E98 (98% ethanol & 2% gasoline).

I'm wondering how much energy the process costs compared to what it puts out at this point in time. Anyone have any idea?

What's the energy consumed (not including growing the algae, let's give them that) compared to the energy yield of the finished product? It's a really important thing to note in something like this.

looks like a fairly energy intensive process to me.. so not sure how much energy it's actually producing.. very confused by the woman suggesting that it would help reduce the greenhouse effect as that has nothing to do with the source of the hydrocarbon that is being burned..

I love this. Its simple and can be used by any nation. Keep at it !!

Maybe the oil originally formed with greater pressure and heat in a much shorter period of time. Like perhaps during a catastrophic global flood

So .. "same conditions within the Earth that transformed Algae into oil millions of years ago." How are so many people glossing over that? It's still "crude oil".... with extra steps.

This seems promising. Have algae farms (remove CO2 from environment), use algae to make fuel (puts CO2 back into environment)...which should be, if not carbon neutral, carbon lessening. Some algae can be used as food, as well. No drilling, mining, etc. needed

Ok, but what is the net output??? How much energy does it cost to make that little jar of crude?? 10 little jars of crude?

Is this a net positive energy product?

What is the energetic cost of the process per 100 gr of algae into bio-crude?

unfortunately shortly after this video was made the scientists leading this project were killed in car crash. its sad to see something so important die in an instant.

The fact that crude oil can be created from algae and given that said oil can be refined into better oil, that basically means oil itself is a reusable resource. *And here comes the angry environmentalists*

Sounds like there are inefficiencies in the process that don't make this a good alternative yet. the fact that they have to create high pressure during the process is an energy drain, possibly making it so that you don't get as much fuel to make it worth it.

How much energy does it take to convert the algae into oil?

Just a question as I'm uneducated, I thought most fossil fuel was actually very (very) old algae that was slowly "cooked" over time to produce crude oil. Is the positive of this research to show we can get oil out of algae but without adding trapped (underground/contained) carbon into the cycle?

By what I'm understanding this is the same process that a lot of places are using for marijuana extraction. Because essentially they are both lipids or oils that are being extracted

Has there been any progress with this as fuel? This video was a very long time ago, is the algae solution as an alternative source redundant ?

You could for sure scale this up easily and manufacture it.

Algae for biocrude, would be best grown using non-potable water, such as that discharged from wastewater (sewage) treatment facilities. Some such facilities are also huge producers of by-product or "waste" gas CO2, usually vented into the atmosphere, but is crucial to algae production. EPA and related water regulations need to be revamped so that these waste substances can be legally used, rather than wastefully vented into atmosphere,, in the case of the CO2, or in the case of wastewater facility effluent water, discharged into public-contact/exposure "receiving waters" such as rivers. For example, here in California, a large biocrude production facility could be built in one of the desert areas, with the non-potable water and waste CO2 gas being piped in from the big city areas. It could be done very economically (by comparison to some California mega-projects). But some "pilot" operations would, of course, need to be done first. The biggest obstacles are certain re-use/capture laws which impede doing so. Nevertheless, there are also very large factory-bakeries where huge volumes of dough fermentation occur, as well as large breweries, both of which are also great sources of waste-gas CO2 recovery (capture) for re-use in algae operations. But as said, there are specific laws which require revamping in order to do so. An algae biocrude operation would also be a producer of large volumes of (industrial-use) oxygen gas as one profitable by-product. -Even the biocrude algae (leftover) sludge would have value. We need new energy industry models. This is a good one, if certain laws can be brought up-to-date. -Most such problem laws are decades old, going back to the '60's and '70's, depending on the state, and seem, in my opinion, to also be protectionist of certain industries then (and now).. In research labs, oil content has been pushed to over 80% oil yield per algae cell. That was 5 yrs ago.

It would be really cool if we could take this algae and pump it into the old empty oil wells, you get carbon sequestration and you get more oil in the far future.

Wow! Algae are surely amazing! Only knew some kelps can be used to cook delicious soup, now they can even be used for green biofuels! Amazing! ^v< b

Just put the algae in the blender. The oil will separated after a decantation.

If crude oil is the best carbon sink, and since we can already make algae into crude oil, can we make oil and store it? Making the crude oil would take a lot of energy, but say we used solar energy.Could we sequester enough C02 out of the atmosphere to slow down climate change? How much crude oil do we need to make?

but does it release greenhouse gas when burned?

How big of an area has to be used to make a billion barrels of oil? There is a lot of prime land for use in north africa

So why aren't we using this?

if heat and pressure is needed to convert algae to oil can we just pump the Algae water that cannot ne used to eat back into the oil well even the algae we get from the sea and ponds. we can set up algae bio-reactors along the highways and densely populated areas and when you get the right concentration pump it into a tanker and transport it to a dry/ dead well and the heat and pressure may convert the algae to bio oil that eventually can be reused?........

Can naphtha be made from this biocrude oil and can it make plastics?

So... thermal depolymerization?

Whatever happened to this project?

Eroie is what counts. Firstly they need pressure. That will take energy. Then they need algae which needs to be fed to multiply. So this is nothing like real oil as it was back in 1900 when it was close to the surface and cheap to extract. Why one barrel of oil energy could be used to extract 100 barrels.

wow ... what a great use for wind and solar power, converting Algae to petrol chemicals. That would be much easier than creating DC power converting it to AC, putting it through a series of transformers and then sending it around the country, all at rates that are not constant and stress the grid.

So if its connected to a powerplant you get needed CO2

How about sewage sludge?

Note very carefully that they said they are subjecting the algae to the same conditions that turned algae into oil. The results speak for themselves in that these guys are not having to wait millions of years for the algae to turn into a usable product. These guys accidentally exposed that we were lied to about how long it actually takes to turn organic material into oil. This research might also hold the key to 'recharging' our oil deposits.

What's up since the time..

Pretty freaking awesome!

how much waste? if it's crude oil like that then what is the by products? the bad stuff?

Showing how it's made, but not how it burns ?

Does the same process work with sargassum? We have tons and tons of sargassum where I live.

New Trends in Chemical Engineering!!

Being a Northwesterner, I know how easy it is to grow Algae. Am curious, I'm about to embark on some destructive distillation of wood. I wonder if I can get Methanol from Algae.

hola de que esta hecho vuestro reactor

Algae are interesting but what about water hyacint or perhaps elephant grass or bamboo??

Good work science!

And they'll never tell you how to make this stuff at home because they want their cake and eat it too.

Marcos y nahuel, un solo corazón

Takes care of supply part of problem, but, how does it burn? It's got to be at least cleaner than fossil fuels, right?

algae is the single biggest provider of oxygen on this planet, won't turning it into fuel be a slight problem? less algae means less oxygen, unless we can easily grow it.

Post the complete procedure online before big oil companies shut you down.

This is amazing!!!

Why do we keep turning to limited resources? Haven't we learned that dependence on these kinds of materials is gonna be our downfall? Sure we can use Algae for a while but we need to consider what happens when the amount of Algae in the water begins to diminish rapidly. It's almost catastrophic! Instead of researching alternate ways or shortcuts to our oil, gas etc. problem why don't they just research into reusable energy and ways that DON'T risk running out of whatever we're trying to use.

How much energy does it cost to make? That's the issue

However when it is burned it also CO2 right? So it wouldn’t impact Global Warming just lower the pollution of the process and replace the destructive extraction processes. What are the lifecycle costs and how much energy does it take to produce it?

can it make regular gas and diesel

Which algae are they using

so what is the EROEI on this?

if we store bio-oil in extinct oil wells, will it not eventually become oil?

Theres a guy making Crude Oil with a stove a barrel and some branches... MrTeslonian or something, he is on youtube, I think anything organic can be made into oil under the right heat and pressure, isnt that what oil is anyway? Compressed organic matter under tons of earth.

Nice.

50 years ago this would of been put on the market over night. Today we just sit on it and act like its nothing.

remember, refer to the algae as GOOP

Not quite sure if this is the smartest step. Seems more like a step backward then forward considering that we have genetically altered algae to produce high levels of hydrogen for fuel cells.

Well this sounds great and all... until you ask how much energy it takes to actually form the oil in the first place. Now, unless you're talking about very niche applications in the far future, going with a net-loss of energy in order to put it in a liquid is not only pointless, but actively harmful to the goal of "green" energy, and the diversification of energy sources worldwide. To be clear, creating oil in this way is not a bad idea, and will likely be the primary way of getting a hold of oil in the (far) future, but it is NOT in any way a substitute for the fossil fuels that power the world.

I understand that this is cheaper than the original process, but how cheap is that? Cheaper than our oil interests in the Middle East? What would be the costs of scaling this up? Why hasn't this been swallowed up by any private companies yet?

while using algae might be new, this process of obtaining crude oil isnt. as long as humanity has had gasifiers, humanity has had access to some version of this crude oil, but it was either discarded early on or was used to soak torches or wan oil furnaces. entire cities used to run off gasifiers for anything from street lighting to a stovetop, in fact quite a few cities still have their old gasifier street lanterns but most of them run off the city's natural gas lines not a gasifier production line. a gasifier can run off pretty much anything combustible in nature like wood, coal, dried animal feces, crop waste, dried crops, etc. so its not really all that new of knowledge that a plant matter can produce crude oil therein gasoline when in a pressurized then condensed and refined. society just forgot about this process like they did when someone came along with the non electric car, and decided never to go back to it. like the electric car this process was abandoned for a similar reason, it was to complicated/long a process with the available materials/refining processes. so when we struck oil and refined that it was faster to produce the diesel/gasoline we needed. but now that society as a whole produces so much waste and is much much more population dense we now have the materials to make this process more feasible. especially now that we have our crude oil refining systems so efficient, like how we now have way better battery technology that is suitable for an electric car we now can build them.

whats the net energy from this ?

how is this CLEAN energy?

7 years later...... Still nothing.

With cars becoming electric only this is terrific /endsarcasm It will hopefully help with other engines running on hydrocarbon fuels

Yes! Another scientific discovery that proves a young earth!

How much algae = a gallon of fuel?

Cool, but I wonder about the whole "subjects algae to very high pressure and temperature" thing. If energy in is greater than energy out, its just a cool proof of concept and not a long term solution kind of thing.

I cant see why we dont stop oil production, and instead makes mor algea production. Algea is healthy for the environement and also makes alot of oxygen!! Love algea!!

Wow, Awesone, Very Good!

That almost sounds like cold fusion.

how do i invest in this?

Algal Oil is basicly the same thing and it fuils the body and can lower chl leveals

So the only question is when is PNNL going to sell this R&D to China?

Wouldn't biofuel still release carbon into the air?

Wow!!! Amazing.

IF YOU press a little harder and longer we can all have us diamond roads that never wear out. yea! yea!

What we are trying to develop is a way to provide the raw materials (algae) cost effectively for the processes in this video. We have already applied of 3 US patents and are patent pending. Would you consider a renewable fuel source (system) that's carbon neutral, eco friendly, and cost effective... Would this interest you? Now what if, this renewable fuel used waste (trash that would normally go to landfills) as an energy input source, in it's creation. Still interested?... Well lets continue on then. What if, the only "waste" produced from these processes where... pure air,... pure distilled water,... and fertilizer... What would you think of that? So... what if, this renewable fuel source didn't displace jobs, but created new jobs, a supportive technology, rather than a disruptive technology, and would not change the existing infrastructure... (the oil, gas, and coal industry supports ~ 16,800,000 jobs world wide "I would hate to see these people put out of work")... Have I peaked your interest? AND NO... I am NOT talking about nuclear energy. I am talking about something that's natural, that has been around for many eons... Namely micro algae, that green pond scum that you try to get rid of in your fish tank, or swimming pool. This is where crude oil comes from. There are many companies in the US, and abroad that are trying to do what I am suggesting, but they are doing it the same old way, that is, in my opinion not very effective, "just providing patches to flawed systems, which is what I see time, and time again through my research". What I have spent the past 10 years of my life doing is researching, experimenting, and redesigning the whole algae growth system, so that it would provide the ideal conditions to grow/produce algae, in abundant enough amounts year round, thus making it economically viable to creat bio-crude oil, and be able to compete with the cost of regular crude oil. As an added bonus it also helps clean up the environment. To be honest, I really wasn't thinking about that when I designed the system, it just work out that way. Here are some real world examples of what I'm discussing, that would be incorporated into our system. Power, and heat produced from trash, this of course would be scaled down to our system requirments kzfaq.info/get/bejne/otOkgthyysqZnoE.html Our system would provide all the energy requirments both electrical and thermal for the PNNL technology processes Here is an example of using the Co2 emissions produced it our power plant kzfaq.info/get/bejne/Z7SJaqybmNHRh4k.html Here is another kzfaq.info/get/bejne/eM6SedWT0peXnHk.html This next video gives some information about algae, and explanes how the algae are grown, but again our system is quit different kzfaq.info/get/bejne/obd2fryhldacoKM.html This video shows given the proper conditions the algae can grow to very dense cultures, this system is seasonal, our system is not it will provide the ideal conditions year round kzfaq.info/get/bejne/a7lxjNB7qNa7hWQ.html As I mentioned before our system is considerably different than others, and designed to alleviate the problems occuring in existing algae growth systems, specifically designed to make it environmentally friendly, and cost effective.

Except this discovery will be forgotten about and suppressed and never make it to the market

Where are the numbers on the efficiency of the process? I can't find it on PNNL or Genifuel's websites. While it may be more efficient than other processes, what is the cost in absolute terms? For example: I produce a process that uses $800 worth of energy to produce $50 worth of fuel while my competitor has a process that requires $1000 worth of energy to produce $50 worth of fuel. My process is 20% cheaper than my competitor, but it is still not viable. The lack of any mention on the efficiency of this process makes me hesitant to believe that this process is even remotely close to ever being viable.

Dude is calling it bio crude, like bro thats just crude. there is so much algae in the ocean it finds it wat to the ocean floor like all the time. Now looking at Saudi Arabia it was probably a swamp once upon a time.

Oil is a renewable resource!!!!

better research more efficient batteries and build a power-net that's streches into every angle of this world green energy, like wind or sun can easily power any car and any household, if every house has a few photovoltaic cells up the roof :S

Nice

i hope this not just another hyped solution to foreign oil that will dissapear

hopefully they can build retail machines that can make 20-50 liters a day that way people can just 1 push a button and be more self sufficient

Why not just dump algae into a tapped out crude oil reserve in the ground🤷

Instead of researching newer and cleaner enegy sources....