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Making Oil in Minutes, Not Millennia

Petroleum was formed by the compression and heating of biomass over millennia. Chemical engineers at the University of Michigan hope to do it in minutes.

They are applying heat and pressure on microalgae, exploring a method to create affordable biofuel that could replace fossil fuels. They also hope to use the byproducts of bio-oil production as feedstock for more biofuel.

“The vision is that nothing would leave the refinery except oil. Everything would get reused,” chemical engineering professor Phillip Savage said in a statement. “That’s one of the things that makes this project novel. It’s an integrated process. We’re combining hydrothermal, catalytic and biological approaches.”

By Chuck Squatriglia

Read More http://www.wired.com/autopia/2010/04/university-of-michigan-bio-oil/#ixzz0mslztRpE

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