Eli5 of we can make lab diamonds on a large scale why can’t we do the same for oil and gas.
In: 166
We absolutely *could* do it, but it would be way more expensive than our current method of finding it in the ground and slurping it out.
We use gas because it releases A LOT of energy when we burn it. This is super useful for all the things we use it for, like cars. The energy *inside* the gasoline has to come from somewhere. Nature did all the work of creating that energy when it made the oil we slurp out of the ground, and that’s why it’s so much cheaper to just find some oil in the ground than to make it ourselves. It takes work for us to make oil, and that work costs way more than just finding some.
Imagine you wanted boulders on top of a hill so that you could push them off and watch them roll down the hill. It’s much easier to push boulders that are already on top of the hill than it is to roll boulders all the way up the hill.
Latest Answers