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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Oil requires millions of years of pressure of sediment to convert from organic material to oil. The time scales involved are difficult for humans to comprehend.
We are presently on track to burn through hundreds of millions of years worth of natural oil production in a couple centuries.
It is possible to make synthetic oil, but the amount of energy you need to put in makes it impractical. You require more energy input to make oil than you get out of it.
Combined with the environmental damage that oil causes, and you start to understand why we are better off looking at alternative fuels.
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