Student discovers replacement for oil

[Sir Chauncy]

Grad Student Believes Wood May Replace Oil

Aug 3, 11:08 PM (ET)

MOSCOW, Idaho (AP) - A University of Idaho graduate student believes the answer to the world's crude oil crisis grows on trees. Juan Andres Soria says he has developed a process that turns wood into bio-oil, a substance similar to crude oil.

The process - in which sawdust and methanol are heated to 900 degrees Fahrenheit to create the bio-oil - is already drawing some interest from energy and wood product companies, Soria said.

"But because it's quite novel, there's a bit of reserve," he said.

Soria is testing his theory with the help of Armando McDonald, associate professor of wood chemistry and composites in the University of Idaho's College of Natural Resources.

Though the idea may sound far-fetched, Soria and McDonald say the theory has precedent in nature - coal is the result of trees being subjected to high amounts of heat and pressure.

"We're trying to speed up the process," McDonald said. "Rather than doing it in millions of years, can we do it in minutes?"

So far, Soria's research has focused on sawdust from Ponderosa pine trees, although he said any variety of tree could be used, including fast-growing varieties like those being cultivated for wood pulp. Only about 2 percent of the mass is lost in the heating process, he said. After the bio-oil is produced, he separates it by boiling points, or grades. So far, he said, he's identified oil grades that could someday replace gasoline, tar, glues and resins that make things like lawn furniture.

Ponderosa pine sawdust is only the beginning, Soria and McDonald claim. Next, they will begin testing to see if they can get bio-oil from pine needles and bark.

The two are doing the research without grant money. Soria plans to use the research in his dissertation for his doctorate. If the private sector likes the idea enough to back it financially, Soria said he could put together an industrial-size bio refinery in five years.

Still, he said, the bio-oil isn't likely to be an immediate competitor to crude oil. Crude oil currently costs about $60 a barrel, and bio-oil will only be competitive when the cost of crude oil reaches $80 a barrel, Soria said.

__________________

I apologize for putting this here but wasn.t sure where it belonged. I got this from a poster in another site and thought it worth the read.

SC

[canadian_conservative]

It's not that I don't beleive you but could I get a link to the website you saw this on. I am interested

[BHS]

If this is real, it's the tree-hugger equivalent of stem cell research.

I'm a little leery of a source of energy being proposed to replace oil, that requires it's components be heated to 900 degrees. Sounds like perpetual motion to me. Though I suppose you could use solar radiation to supply some of the heat. But it still sounds wacky.

[Riverwind]

The process - in which sawdust and methanol are heated to 900 degrees Fahrenheit to create the bio-oil - is already drawing some interest from energy and wood product companies, Soria said.

"But because it's quite novel, there's a bit of reserve," he said.

It is not particularily original concept since similar work has been done with making plastics from plants:

http://www.mindfully.org/Plastic/Biodegrad...asticsAug00.htm

The reason we will still be using oil for plastics for the foreseeable future is summarized here:

But a greater concern has made us question whether those solutions are worth pursuing. When we calculated all the energy and raw materials required for each step of growing PHA in plants--harvesting and drying the corn stover, extracting PHA from the stover, purifying the plastic, separating and recycling the solvent, and blending the plastic to produce a resin--we discovered that this approach would consume even more fossil resources than most petrochemical manufacturing routes.

[Yaro]

Big deal? Bio-Desiel has been around for years and is much easier to produce.

If this is real, it's the tree-hugger equivalent of stem cell research.

I'm a little leery of a source of energy being proposed to replace oil, that requires it's components be heated to 900 degrees. Sounds like perpetual motion to me. Though I suppose you could use solar radiation to supply some of the heat. But it still sounds wacky.

It takes 900 degrees to change the wood to oil, that wouldn't be done in the car. Oh and all the laws of thermodynamics are wrong, we have known that for a while now.

Not that it makes much of a difference, its not like theres a massive overabundance of wood in the world right now.

[BHS]

It takes 900 degrees to change the wood to oil, that wouldn't be done in the car. Oh and all the laws of thermodynamics are wrong, we have known that for a while now.

Not that it makes much of a difference, its not like theres a massive overabundance of wood in the world right now.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I didn't say it would be done in the car, and I don't think that my post implied that.

Perhaps the laws of thermodynamics have been proven wrong in whichever universe you came from, but they're still intact here. Unless I slept through that news week. A revelation like that wouldn't be relegated to the back pages. In any case, my reference to perpetual motion was meant to be metaphorical. It seems to me that 900 degree temperatures are pretty hard to sustain without a lot of energy input, and I'm guessing it's probably more energy than what you'll get out of the end product.

[Riverwind]

Here is another link to people trying to speed up natural geologic processes:

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/11.09/d...pic=&topic_set=

[takeanumber]

he process - in which sawdust and methanol are heated to 900 degrees Fahrenheit to create the bio-oil - is already drawing some interest from energy and wood product companies, Soria said.

Where does the energy for the process come from?

The Sun?

Meh. You'd have to transfer the radiation into energy, then into batteries, and then back into electricity to run heaters.....that's a lot of wastage.

Geothermal?

Sure.

BioOil also emits Co2.

I like the hydrogen option....use nuclear at the top of the chain...build the pipelines (obstacles be damned) to transport the hydrogen to 'gas stations'.

That's the way to go.

[Yaro]

I agree that were going to wind up with nuclear energy being nessecary at the top of whatever process we come up with. I think that Bio-Desiel is still the most practical and likely solution, a properly tuned turbo desiel hybrid would be virtually zero emisson to boot.