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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Because it took millions of years to turn the algae into oil or trees into coal. We don’t have that kind of time to renew those resources, so even if there was a way to do it, it’s not useful to us.
Trying to accelerate the process would require putting in more energy; since we’re using these as energy sources, it would make the overall process less useful.
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