Biocrude Investments

The making of biocrude, or plant-based artificial crude oil, has taken a strong step in the right direction. Biocrude has been around for a little while, but just how to produce enough of it at the right price remains yet to be seen. The technology, however, has seen some very recent developments that could bring it a little closer toward putting it in your car.

Another name used to refer to biocrude is pyrolysis oil. This is one of the products that you get when biomass (compost pile type of materials), are put in a container and processed using heat - but no oxygen. The result is that you get three different states of products - solids, liquids, and gases. The liquid, which must be cooled almost instantly (two seconds), is the pyrolysis oil. It is this liquid that is showing promise in the refinement process of being able to convert it into various states of fuel.

Right now, though, there remain some difficulties - which needs to be worked out. One proposed solution, which will be worked on very soon, is to attempt to use algae as the base component. Since it is already known that crude oil contains some partially deteriorated algae, this is being looked at with some hope. A number of scientists will soon be working at Sandia laboratories in an effort to make it work.

The promise of using algae is that it can be grown just about anywhere - and does not even need to have clean water. It will even grow in swamps. It is even believed that enough algae could be produced in America alone, that it would not limit the necessary land needed for food production.

Taking pyrolysis oil and using it for fuel is already close - it can be used, but it is acidic, and does not yet produce sufficient power. Other things that need to be worked on, though, is to find an algae that has a high fat content. Once that is overcome, then we may be seeing a lot of investments being made in algae farming - possibly soon.