(Eli5) If oil isn’t just from dinosaurs, but from algae and phytoplankton, can oil be renewable?

Question

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?

In: 21

Answer 1

In theory, yes. But the ingredient we can’t readily reproduce is time. It takes a long time to degrade in an advantageous way, and making it under lab conditions is more expensive than batteries