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Plastic and Fuel That Grow On Trees

Posted by kdawson on from the fur-for-all dept.

Tim Hanlon writes "Biofuels continue to lead the field in the search for a renewable, environmentally friendly replacement for crude oil. Besides its use in the transport industry, crude oil is also used to produce conventional plastics and chemical products such as fertilizers and solvents. Now chemists have learned how to convert plant biomass directly into a chemical building block that can be used to produce not only fuel, but also plastics, polyester, and industrial chemicals, cheaply and efficiently."

8 of 188 comments (clear)

  1. Diesel that grows in trees by mangu · · Score: 5, Informative

    Copaiba is a tree from the Amazon region that gives diesel oil. Drill a hole in the tree and pour the oil that comes out in your tank, that is all you need to do. Typical yield is 40 liter per tree every year.

    1. Re:Diesel that grows in trees by Flimzy · · Score: 4, Informative

      That's hardly "diesel oil" any more than other forms of vegetable oil are "diesel oil". It still needs to be converted to biodiesel to be safe for long-term use in a diesel engine. Of course it simplifies the oil extraction process greatly (usually done by pressing). You're going to get a lot of impurities (like water!) if you do what you suggest, too.

    2. Re:Diesel that grows in trees by bzzfzz · · Score: 5, Informative

      Like any other vegetable oil, the oil derived from Copiaba has to be processed using Transesterification to be useful as a fuel. Though the process is not difficult or costly, there's more to it than just dumping the raw oil in your fuel tank.

  2. Too good to be true... maybe? by bzzfzz · · Score: 4, Informative

    The process described is about two years old and was published last month.

    Untold millions of dollars have been spent in search of a cost effective process to produce ethanol from cellulose for use as a fuel, leading me to wonder exactly what the catch is.

    Of course, converting much of the world's cropland to pulpwood production isn't exactly an environmental panacea.

  3. Re:cheap? by ericrost · · Score: 5, Informative

    From TFA:

    Now chemists have learned how to convert plant biomass directly into a chemical building block that can not only be used to produce fuel, but also plastics, polyester and industrial chemicals cheaply and efficiently.

    It says so right in TFA that's "where the fuck it says" it.

    --
    My Babylon
  4. No conversion needed by mangu · · Score: 5, Informative

    It still needs to be converted to biodiesel to be safe for long-term use in a diesel engine

    Googling for more data on this, I found at least one article that claims otherwise: "... copaiba (Copaifera Langsdorfii) has raised the possibility of eliminating even the processing step. The copaiba produces at least 20-30 liters of oil every six months -- and this oil is a mixture of 15-carbon hydrocarbons which can be used directly to power a diesel engine"

  5. Re:Missing the point by vinn · · Score: 4, Informative

    As someone who has worked in the 'energy' business and knows lots of people in the 'energy' biz, I can summarize the ENTIRE mentality of that entire industry: drill, drill, drill.

    The concept of better, faster, cheaper doesn't apply to them - they are too narrowly focused on moving a rig from one well to another.

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    ----- obSig
  6. Hemp by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

    This isn't exactly new technology, it's already proven that oil and plastic (as well as paper, high-durability concrete, etc) can be made from hemp. The only problem with hemp is that it's illegal to grow it in the US because it looks too much like Marijuana, and is therefore controlled by the DEA, despite the fact that you can smoke all the hemp you can handle and still not even get a buzz.