WEBVTT - How can we eliminate fossil fuels? 0:00:00.520 --> 0:00:03.800 Welcome to Brainstuff from house stuff works dot com where 0:00:03.840 --> 0:00:15.480 smart happens. Hi, I'm Marshall Brain with today's question, how 0:00:15.520 --> 0:00:19.600 could we eliminate fossil fuels and all the carbon emissions 0:00:19.640 --> 0:00:23.079 that they create? So last week you may recall that 0:00:23.200 --> 0:00:26.880 I did a post on Jewel Unlimited, a company that 0:00:27.080 --> 0:00:29.880 claims that in two thousand and twelve, they will be 0:00:29.920 --> 0:00:35.880 able to produce virtually unlimited liquid hydrocarbons, namely diesel fuel, 0:00:36.360 --> 0:00:40.040 using bacteria. The company further claims that they'll be able 0:00:40.080 --> 0:00:43.560 to do this at a rate of fifteen thousand gallons 0:00:43.600 --> 0:00:47.440 of diesel fuel per acre, and that the diesel fuel 0:00:47.440 --> 0:00:51.120 will cost the equivalent of oil if it were at 0:00:51.200 --> 0:00:54.800 thirty dollars per barrel. Now, this is miraculous if they 0:00:54.840 --> 0:00:57.280 pull it off, and I did talk about it in 0:00:57.360 --> 0:01:00.080 my podcast. I also posted it on the blog. And 0:01:00.160 --> 0:01:04.200 what was interesting was the reaction to that. Almost universally, 0:01:04.640 --> 0:01:08.880 people thought one of two things. Either that the oil companies, 0:01:09.160 --> 0:01:11.600 because they want to make billions of dollars a year 0:01:11.640 --> 0:01:14.479 in revenue from oil, are going to come in and 0:01:14.520 --> 0:01:17.640 crush this effort in any effort like it, so that 0:01:18.240 --> 0:01:23.000 none of these uh bacteria generated or algae generated liquid 0:01:23.080 --> 0:01:26.800 hydro carbons ever make it to market, or people thought 0:01:26.920 --> 0:01:30.360 that this company is lying in order to raise money, 0:01:30.400 --> 0:01:33.720 that they are just making up these claims and that 0:01:33.760 --> 0:01:36.880 there is absolutely no truth to it. I don't think 0:01:36.920 --> 0:01:40.400 their claims are false, because there are lots of companies 0:01:40.720 --> 0:01:44.520 pursuing the same kind of activity, either in the bacteria 0:01:44.680 --> 0:01:48.320 or in the algae space, and the number of companies 0:01:48.360 --> 0:01:51.520 would imply that there really is something there. But the 0:01:51.600 --> 0:01:54.800 conspiracy theory thing is kind of interesting if you think 0:01:54.840 --> 0:01:58.360 about it, because historically there is a fair amount of 0:01:58.400 --> 0:02:03.639 evidence that the oil company do participate in conspiracy theory 0:02:03.800 --> 0:02:07.960 kind of stuff. For example, there was the dismantling of 0:02:08.000 --> 0:02:13.040 the rapid transit system in Los Angeles. There was prohibition 0:02:13.200 --> 0:02:17.120 which many think was put in place not because of 0:02:17.160 --> 0:02:20.480 the problems of drinking alcohol, but because of the problems 0:02:20.520 --> 0:02:24.680 of making ethanol as a fuel. Things like that do 0:02:24.840 --> 0:02:27.840 make you think. So I was thinking about it, and 0:02:27.880 --> 0:02:31.920 I was thinking, Okay, let's say that these conspiracy theories 0:02:31.960 --> 0:02:34.720 are true. And there were so many people that came 0:02:34.800 --> 0:02:37.640 up with this kind of comment that, you know, it 0:02:37.680 --> 0:02:40.640 made me think. This is a deeply seated belief in 0:02:40.680 --> 0:02:43.520 the United States. So let's say these theories are true. 0:02:43.840 --> 0:02:46.800 How could you get around it? What could you do 0:02:47.400 --> 0:02:50.680 that would make it impossible for the oil companies to 0:02:50.960 --> 0:02:55.639 stop the effort to create liquid hydrocarbons from bacteria or algae. 0:02:56.080 --> 0:02:59.400 My thinking took me in this direction. One way to 0:02:59.480 --> 0:03:04.080 get around the conspiracy would be to widely publicized instructions 0:03:04.160 --> 0:03:07.640 for a fuel production system that any normal, do it 0:03:07.720 --> 0:03:11.760 yourself type maker person could easily build in his or 0:03:11.800 --> 0:03:15.680 her backyard. Imagine if a system like that existed, You 0:03:15.720 --> 0:03:18.440 invest a couple of hundred bucks, and suddenly you can 0:03:18.480 --> 0:03:22.160 make your own fuel, essentially for free, in your backyard. 0:03:22.680 --> 0:03:25.360 If thousands of people were doing this, there would be 0:03:25.400 --> 0:03:28.560 no way to squash that movement, and that would give 0:03:28.680 --> 0:03:31.800 small companies the cover they need to grow fuel in 0:03:31.840 --> 0:03:34.600 bigger batches, and soon fossil fuels would be a thing 0:03:34.600 --> 0:03:37.600 of the past. The funny thing is, the more I 0:03:37.640 --> 0:03:40.640 think about this, the more realistic it seems. This might 0:03:40.840 --> 0:03:44.200 actually be a project that falls within the abilities of 0:03:44.280 --> 0:03:48.960 normal do it yourself folks, and more importantly, the maker community. 0:03:49.640 --> 0:03:53.120 Think about the pieces needed to pull this off. First, 0:03:53.200 --> 0:03:56.080 we need the ability to grow algae. Now, this is 0:03:56.120 --> 0:03:59.200 not a complicated problem. Anybody who's left a bucket out 0:03:59.240 --> 0:04:01.600 on the back poor that has rainwater and it has 0:04:01.680 --> 0:04:05.320 seen algae grow right before their very eyes. So any 0:04:05.400 --> 0:04:09.160 kind of large plastic barrel or an inexpensive above ground 0:04:09.240 --> 0:04:13.200 swimming pool can be used to grow algae. Algae like 0:04:13.320 --> 0:04:17.560 lots of other plants, produce oil. You know, corn produces 0:04:17.640 --> 0:04:23.080 corn oil, soybeans produced soybean oil. So algae produces algae oil. 0:04:23.680 --> 0:04:27.080 We next need a way to separate that oil from 0:04:27.120 --> 0:04:31.000 the algae. Now this isn't trivial, but it's not impossible either. 0:04:31.680 --> 0:04:34.720 You can dry the algae and then you can press 0:04:34.800 --> 0:04:37.880 the algae sort of like you press olives to get 0:04:37.920 --> 0:04:40.919 olive oil. You can press the algae to get the 0:04:41.000 --> 0:04:43.920 algae oil out of it. There's no magic here, and 0:04:43.960 --> 0:04:46.080 the sun can do the drying, so it's not like 0:04:46.120 --> 0:04:49.320 we need energy to dry out the algae. Now with 0:04:49.400 --> 0:04:51.960 that oil, you can do one of two things. You 0:04:52.000 --> 0:04:55.320 can burn oil directly in a diesel engine. You have 0:04:55.400 --> 0:04:58.000 to do a little bit of modification to heat the 0:04:58.000 --> 0:05:01.480 oil up, especially in winter, or it's not gonna flow 0:05:01.600 --> 0:05:04.120 properly and it's gonna come up the engine. But when 0:05:04.240 --> 0:05:08.039 mr diesel invented the diesel engine, he intended vegetable oil 0:05:08.120 --> 0:05:11.960 to be the source of fuel, so this is not 0:05:12.240 --> 0:05:14.960 an unusual thing to do to a diesel engine. But 0:05:15.000 --> 0:05:18.040 if you don't want to use liquid vegetable oil in 0:05:18.120 --> 0:05:21.360 your diesel engine, then you have the option of taking 0:05:21.400 --> 0:05:25.680 that algae oil and turning it into biodiesel. This again 0:05:26.400 --> 0:05:29.520 is not trivial, but it's also not impossible, and it's 0:05:29.560 --> 0:05:32.000 something that just about anybody could do in their garage 0:05:32.040 --> 0:05:35.480 if they wanted to. Now, whether you use straight vegetable 0:05:35.480 --> 0:05:39.719 oil or bio diesel in a car, you have successfully 0:05:39.920 --> 0:05:44.160 grown fuel in your backyard at low cost on your own, 0:05:44.600 --> 0:05:47.240 and there really isn't any way for anybody to stop 0:05:47.279 --> 0:05:50.040 you from doing this. If we wanted to turn this 0:05:50.279 --> 0:05:54.599 into a widespread do it yourself movement, what would we 0:05:54.640 --> 0:05:57.760 have to do? What's missing? There's really only two things. 0:05:58.120 --> 0:06:00.880 The first is a set of complete step by step 0:06:00.920 --> 0:06:04.160 instructions with all the kinks worked out, so that someone 0:06:04.200 --> 0:06:06.719 can pick up these instructions and start making fuel in 0:06:06.760 --> 0:06:10.799 their backyard without it being a real problem, or without 0:06:10.880 --> 0:06:14.000 them making a lot of mistakes, or without anything blowing up, 0:06:14.040 --> 0:06:16.600 which is impossible. You can't really blow anything up while 0:06:16.640 --> 0:06:18.839 you grow algae and press oil out of it. But 0:06:19.160 --> 0:06:20.920 it would be nice to know how to make the 0:06:20.960 --> 0:06:24.120 press and what to feed the algae and so on, 0:06:24.279 --> 0:06:27.360 so step by step instructions would help. The second thing 0:06:27.400 --> 0:06:31.400 we need is good strains of algae that produce a 0:06:31.440 --> 0:06:34.560 lot of oil. This, too, is something that the maker 0:06:34.640 --> 0:06:38.440 community could grab. Ahold of the discovery and or the 0:06:38.520 --> 0:06:43.000 creation of algae strains is something that's fathomable. One way 0:06:43.040 --> 0:06:45.120 to do it would be to go out into nature 0:06:45.200 --> 0:06:49.960 and gather different strains of algae from different ponds, separated 0:06:50.000 --> 0:06:53.760 into its different species, grow them, and see which strain 0:06:53.880 --> 0:06:58.400 of naturally occurring algae produces the most oil. It's also 0:06:58.520 --> 0:07:02.120 getting easier and easy year for makers to do biotech 0:07:02.200 --> 0:07:06.839 at home or in rented facilities because biotech equipment and 0:07:06.920 --> 0:07:10.480 biotech procedures have gotten a lot less expensive and a 0:07:10.520 --> 0:07:13.400 lot easier. So you could imagine a part of the 0:07:13.440 --> 0:07:17.600 maker community going out and trying to create to bioengineer 0:07:17.680 --> 0:07:20.800 their own algae strain that produces a lot of oil. 0:07:21.080 --> 0:07:23.200 Then it would just be a matter of making these 0:07:23.360 --> 0:07:27.240 high oil algae strains available to people so that they 0:07:27.280 --> 0:07:31.440 can use them in their backyard algae growing pools. So 0:07:31.600 --> 0:07:35.080 just imagine what would happen if this could be pulled off, 0:07:35.640 --> 0:07:38.680 If the instructions could be developed, if the processes could 0:07:38.720 --> 0:07:41.160 be simplified, if a strain of algae could be found 0:07:41.160 --> 0:07:44.800 that produces a really high quantity of oil per cubic 0:07:45.000 --> 0:07:49.080 meter of water, then we would be on the cusp 0:07:49.200 --> 0:07:52.120 of the elimination of fossil fuels. It's one of the 0:07:52.160 --> 0:07:56.040 most important problems humankind needs to solve, and it would 0:07:56.040 --> 0:07:59.280 be great if do it yourselfers and the maker community 0:07:59.320 --> 0:08:04.040 could make it happened. For more on this and thousands 0:08:04.040 --> 0:08:06.720 of other topics, visit how stuff works dot com and 0:08:06.760 --> 0:08:08.720 don't forget to check out the brain stuff blog on 0:08:08.760 --> 0:08:10.960 the how stuff works dot com home page. You can 0:08:11.000 --> 0:08:14.040 also follow brain stuff on Facebook or Twitter at brain 0:08:14.080 --> 0:08:19.239 stuff hs W. The How Stuff Works iPhone app has arrived. 0:08:19.320 --> 0:08:21.240 Download it today on iTunes.