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While
Ethanol (E85) is the fastest route to jump-starting our
independence from foreign and Middle East petroleum-based oil, the
cutting-edge technology and our best hope for rapid oil independence
is probably going to be man-made oil.
What
if we could make our own oil?
The advantage of
man-made oil and gasoline over ethanols, and other alcohols made
from plant masses, is that man-made oil could be used directly in
our massive oil-based infrastructure (pipelines, refineries, fueling
stations, and the engines in our vehicles). All theoretically without
any changes to it.
This is a big deal
because changing that infrastructure costs an enormous amount of
money and takes a lot of time.
There are a few very
creative and ingenious scientists who are making man-made oil and
gasoline right now. It's not yet ready for public use but could be
by around 2010-2015 which isn't far away at all.
Best of all is that
man-made oil is probably our best route to independence from foreign
oil and has the potential to do so very quickly.
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The scientists and entrepreneurs who are creating man-made oil
(synthetic oil) come from the professions of synthetic biology,
biotechnology and synthetic genomics.
While many of
these folks have a bad name for trying to create synthetic life
forms and genetically altered foods, their work in the area of
man-made oil is definitely pro-survival for mankind and will
probably change the entire world of energy economics and politics to
our benefit.
Here is the very
brief explanation of how it's done:
Man-made oil is created
by genetically altering certain bacteria which "eat" renewable plant
masses and excrete oil. That excreted oil is the chemical equivalent
of the petroleum based oil we now use in our cars.
This man-made oil has
been created. It's not a theory anymore, it has been done. These
clever folks are now at work building large facilities to create
mass quantities of man-made oil that will replace the oil we now
import from foreign sources.
The projections are that
this oil will be much cheaper than ethanol and petroleum-based
fuels.
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