New technology can turn seaweed into "gasoline" in less than an hour

Can drivers imagine that one day their cars will not drink
gasoline
and rely on seaweed to change the

"
"
drive? A new chemical conversion process will soon fulfill their dream of converting seaweed into

gasoline , a process that takes no more than an hour.at the U.S. Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory have developed a sustainable chemical reaction that produces useful crude oil soon after adding seaweed. The technology is currently patented by Utah-based
Genifuel
Biotechnology, which is working with an industry partner to build an experimental plant for mass production of
"
gasoline
"
. An article in the journal Algae Research describes the
chemical
.process, mud-like wet seaweed is pumped into the front of the chemical reactor. When the system is operational, crude oil, water and phosphorus-containing by-products can flow out in less than an hour. By purification through traditional processes,

"
"
can be converted into aviation fuel, gasoline or diesel." in a sense, we're
'
replicating the process by which nature converted seaweed into crude oil over millions of years, and we're converting more and faster," said Douglas, who led the research team at the U.S. Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.
"
team maintained the algae efficiency advantage and combined a variety of methods to reduce costs. They combined several chemical steps into a sustainable response, simplifying the production process from seaweed
crude
oil. Wet seaweed is used instead of dried seaweed to participate in the reaction, and most current processes require dry seaweed. The new process uses algal slurry
80% to 90%
water content. Other groups have also used wet seaweed for research, but only one batch can be produced at a time, and the new reaction system can continue to operate.in the laboratory, the reactor can handle about 1.5
of algal
per hour. This is small, but this continuous system is closer to large-scale commercial production. Douglas said the high-pressure units required for the new reaction system were costly, a drawback of the technology, but the late savings would outweigh the upfront investment.James

Oyler, president of
, Genifuel
, also said:

's biofuels, which compete with petroleum fuels, are a big challenge and we're taking a big step in the right direction.
”