why wecant Make oil? Couldnt we take organic waste from home/work/produce then nuke it bake it and get GAS?

Question

Hidrcarbons are hidrocarbons, it is posible to press/bake diamonds ¿Why cant we press/bake/nuke NEW oil? I know the EXISTING oil is already there,it is cheaper just to TRANSPORT it and PROCESS it, but still i really want somebody who KNOWS what would it take to get there.

Answer 1

People have done this. When I was young, and the environmental movement was just getting off the ground, a group in Massachusetts proposed doing exactly this with recyclable wastes -- such as plastic bottles -- and garbage. Two things doomed the project: the economics (it cost more to produce oil this way than to pump it from the ground and refine it), and the movement to reduce-reuse-recycle pushed by the ecowarriors.

Answer 2

The problem with producing oil is the cost. Diamonds are produced because per gram it is less expensive to produce them than dig them up and refine them.

Oil when drilled from the ground only produces 86% of the energy put into retrieving it. Meaning for every 100 watts of energy put into drilling and manufacture, you only get 86 watts of energy from the oil. Not very practical as it is. And producing it would only be more expensive.

There are several other alternatives such as ethanol (alcohol). For every 100 watts of energy put into production, you get 126 to 131 watts of energy. The secret to this wonderful ratio of production is most of the work is done by the sun.

Answer 3

We can produce synthetic hydrocarbons. It takes quite a bit of controlled energy, though. Nuking things will probably evaporate them, have them react with the atmosphere while there is way too much excess heat and then fall down uselessly along with the nuclear fallout.

During WW2, Germany was hard pressed to produce fuel due to significant lack of oil deposits. Coal was treated with hydrogen from natural gases to produce hydrocarbons for fuel. Hardly cost efficient, but doable due to severe shortage.

Rather than producing hydrocarbons, you can run ordinary otto engines with alcohol just as well. The exhausts may be slightly more corrosive than those from hydrocarbon explosive combustion, but that doesn't stop e.g. the Indy car racing from using methanol as fuel.