China is doing it too. It's called "Nazi fuel" because the Germans used it in WWII. It is frowned upon by the greenies as it it releases immense green house gases during production. Much more so then oil refinement. Funny, I don't think the Chines really care about that.
An area the size of Chicago... I imagine there is plenty of space out west that could accommodate that. Or there could be a number of facilities so that one facility wouldn't need to produce all of the nation's oil. Or we could simply supplement the oil we get from foreign countries.
Well, the article said they could use various types of feed depending on what was most plentiful in a given region, and a network of facilities makes a lot more security sense than one big one. Also, it mentioned Brazilian sugar cane as one possibility. Could it be that we could build a Poo-Poo-petrol refinery here and get rid of the bagasse mountains that are built up every year?
But for government support, our domestic sugar industry probably wouldn't exist. Perhaps if the bagasse could be sold, it might make it a viable industry. Wonder if they'd eat crawfish peelings? You could have little micro-bugs "suckin' heads"!
This company is back in the news today and in a good way! They're getting some government recognition. LS9 Wins Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge Award
most of craig venter's time nowadays is going into making biofuels using algae or mycoplasma. JCVI: Research / Groups / Synthetic Biology & Bioenergy there are a lot of possibilities with genetic engineering being available in so many organisms now. it may take a while but i think it will be eventually commonly used once oil gets too expensive.
Oil can be made from any organic byproduct. A plant in Arkansas makes oil from turkey parts. A plant is opening in Geismer that will make deisel from unused turkey. Dynamic Fuels LLC Breaks Ground at Geismar, LA Biodiesel Plant Site | BioFuels Journal
