I recently learned that oil is mostly composed of algae and phytoplankton capturing carbon out the atmosphere thousands of years ago. Later the organisms fall to the bottom of the ocean and through time turn into crude hydrocarbons. So why do we not attempt to create the same crude oil by using alge with waste water from water processing plants?
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The problem we’re having with oil is that burning it releases CO2. Being “renewable” or not isn’t really the issue. The organisms that turned into oil were built from atmospheric CO2 when they were alive, so by burning oil we are releasing millions of years worth of CO2 in a matter of decades.
If we take organic material we just find lying around and turn it into oil, and then burn it, that’s no different from just throwing it on a fire. Now, if we actively grow biomass for this purpose (without cutting down forests to do so), then the CO2 we release is the same that we extracted from the atmosphere by growing the stuff, so that’s neutral for carbon.
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