Awesome, now we are sure to spew endlessly more pollutant in the air!...

We need another source of energy.

Maybe I'm remembering things differently, but I thought The Andromeda Strain was an old movie about bacteria that ate rubber, or am I thinking about something else?

-Jay

The USA needs 2 million barrels per day!

How is growing our fuel going to spew more pollutant in the air? The pollutant most commonly complained about is CO2, but renewable grown fuel consumes as much CO2 as is released when burning. It is carbon-neutral. If you really think about it, it is just solar power for internal combustion powered cars.

I vaguely remember that the book started with the bacteria eating rubber, and therefore the old movie probably did. It's been a long time since I've read the book and I may never have seen the old movie. A new version was made recently for tv, I think by A&E, and was shown a couple weeks ago; in that version, there was nothing about rubber until late in the movie after millions were already dead from it.

I just checked IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/find?s=all&q=the+andromeda+strain

Either they changed the plot from the book to the movie, or I'm simply remembering something else.

-Jay

Actually....

It's carbon negative! Burning it puts out less carbon than the raw material pulled out of the air.

Thermal depolymerization produces gas in addition to oil. And the gas produced by the process is used to power the process. From what I have read about thermal depolymerization, once this gas to power the process is taken out, the oil and remaining gas actually still has 85% of the energy content of the original feedstock material. So it is not nearly as inefficient of a process as you think. One thing I should mention is that the pilot plant had to actually pay for the turkey slaughterhouse waste that it uses to make oil (since it has to compete with rendering plants for the stuff). And after this, the total cost of the oil made came out to $80 per barrel. Now it is expected that a new process is going to be quite expensive. So we realistically can't expect $20 a barrel - at least not at first. But, of course, in this day and age, $80 per barrel is actually a bargain.

Matt one of the problems I have had first hand experinece in 5 years of trying to get people to listen to me, is their preconcieved beliefs about what is best for the masses.

I find the most dangerous people on this planet are ignorant ones who are in positions of power, who refuse to look at all possibilities and try to deter development of potential because they may not think "this is the best way."

Having been on the recieveing end of such stupidity I would certainly hope you don't think I have preconcieved beliefs about any individual process.

People who allow their biases and positions of power to stifle ingenuity are some of the most dangerous people on the planet. Their stupidity could actually destroy that same planet at some point in time.

They have come very close already.

regards
gary

Is there any other kind that ends up in positions of power? :D

Good point about the high price of oil. Now that it's so high, many of these alternative energy sources are much more feasible.