WEBVTT - Is it possible to turn coal into oil? 0:00:00.520 --> 0:00:03.600 Welcome to brain Stuff from house Stuff Works dot com 0:00:03.600 --> 0:00:14.560 where smart happens. I am Marshall Brain with today's question, 0:00:15.040 --> 0:00:18.760 is it possible to turn coal into oil? And is 0:00:18.840 --> 0:00:22.079 this a good idea? Oil is currently at a hundred 0:00:22.079 --> 0:00:25.159 dollars or so per barrel. The current reason for the 0:00:25.239 --> 0:00:28.680 high price is instability in the Middle East in countries 0:00:28.720 --> 0:00:32.320 like Libya. In addition, demand for oil is increasing at 0:00:32.320 --> 0:00:35.479 a time when new oil discoveries are declining. This is 0:00:35.520 --> 0:00:39.000 the whole idea behind peak oil and everything that's discussed 0:00:39.000 --> 0:00:42.880 about that. The idea that human beings are growing in number, 0:00:43.120 --> 0:00:47.000 and countries like India and China are growing economically, so 0:00:47.080 --> 0:00:50.360 there's more and more demand for oil, despite the fact 0:00:50.400 --> 0:00:53.440 that oil discoveries have pretty much leveled off or even 0:00:53.479 --> 0:00:57.280 have started to decline. In the United States and in 0:00:57.360 --> 0:01:01.680 many other parts of the world, coal is abundant, while oil, 0:01:02.160 --> 0:01:05.679 as we just discussed, is not. The United States currently 0:01:05.760 --> 0:01:08.640 burns hundreds of millions of tons of coal and its 0:01:08.680 --> 0:01:11.480 power plants every year, and there's thought to be a 0:01:11.520 --> 0:01:14.679 supply of coal that will last for hundreds of years. 0:01:14.720 --> 0:01:18.240 There's coal everywhere in the United States, well not everywhere, 0:01:18.280 --> 0:01:20.720 but in parts of the United States, there is so 0:01:20.840 --> 0:01:25.800 much coal that the amount is virtually unimaginable. What if coal, 0:01:26.000 --> 0:01:29.320 which is abundant, could be turned into oil at a 0:01:29.440 --> 0:01:34.520 cost of perhaps thirty dollars per barrel. That's incredibly inexpensive 0:01:34.560 --> 0:01:37.160 compared to a hundred dollars per barrel, and it would 0:01:37.160 --> 0:01:42.160 have a huge economic impact. That's the idea, This thirty 0:01:42.200 --> 0:01:46.399 dollar a barrel idea behind an invention from the University 0:01:46.400 --> 0:01:50.160 of Texas. It's a micro refinery that has the ability 0:01:50.200 --> 0:01:55.280 to transform solid coal into oil, a liquid hydrocarbon. But 0:01:55.360 --> 0:02:00.320 this invention can do that transformation extremely efficiently, pushing the 0:02:00.440 --> 0:02:03.320 cost of the oil from coal down to thirty dollars 0:02:03.400 --> 0:02:07.960 or so per barrel. How is this possible? Recognize that 0:02:08.040 --> 0:02:13.040 oil consists of hydrocarbons chains of carbon atoms with hydrogen 0:02:13.080 --> 0:02:17.520 atoms attached. So does coal. Coal is made of carbon 0:02:17.560 --> 0:02:21.040 and hydrogen. Except with coal, the carbon molecules form a 0:02:21.160 --> 0:02:25.760 solid because normally there's more carbon than hydrogen available in 0:02:25.840 --> 0:02:29.840 a lump of coal. In anthracite coal, the material is 0:02:29.919 --> 0:02:33.959 almost all carbon. The Germans were able to convert cold 0:02:34.000 --> 0:02:37.720 oil during World War Two using something called the Fisser 0:02:37.880 --> 0:02:41.920 Trops process, which takes all of those carbon atoms in 0:02:42.000 --> 0:02:45.720 coal and adds hydrogen atoms to them to convert the 0:02:45.840 --> 0:02:49.919 coal into a liquid. First, the carbon in the coal 0:02:50.120 --> 0:02:54.000 is reacted with oxygen to form a carbon monoxide gas. 0:02:54.320 --> 0:02:56.640 This is an easy way to move carbon from a 0:02:56.760 --> 0:02:59.639 solid to a gaseous form, and that makes it easier 0:02:59.680 --> 0:03:03.240 to do chemical reactions with it. Hydrogen atoms are made 0:03:03.280 --> 0:03:07.320 from water molecules, The carbon atoms are chained together, and 0:03:07.360 --> 0:03:11.120 the hydrogen atoms are added through a series of catalyzed 0:03:11.200 --> 0:03:16.280 chemical reactions. The University of Texas technology improves the process 0:03:16.360 --> 0:03:19.280 by speeding up the reactions and reducing the amount of 0:03:19.320 --> 0:03:23.359 equipment needed. The result is roughly one and a half 0:03:23.520 --> 0:03:27.560 barrels of oil from one ton of coal, and coal 0:03:27.680 --> 0:03:31.000 costs only eighteen dollars per ton right now in Texas. 0:03:31.639 --> 0:03:33.880 And one advantage of the process is that it can 0:03:33.960 --> 0:03:37.440 be done in small refineries rather than having to build 0:03:37.600 --> 0:03:41.240 billion dollar facilities. This makes it a lot easier to 0:03:41.400 --> 0:03:45.200 deploy the technology and grow it incrementally, rather than needing 0:03:45.280 --> 0:03:48.880 huge investments to get the thing going. The question then 0:03:48.960 --> 0:03:53.600 becomes is this a good idea from an economic standpoint? Clearly, 0:03:53.640 --> 0:03:56.960 it is a good idea. With coal, the United States 0:03:56.960 --> 0:04:00.160 could create its own oil for hundreds of years or 0:04:00.280 --> 0:04:03.800 more and free itself from its dependence on foreign oil. 0:04:04.440 --> 0:04:10.320 But environmentally, many people have grave concerns about cold oil technology, 0:04:10.400 --> 0:04:14.480 also known as liquid coal technology. One reason is the 0:04:14.600 --> 0:04:18.080 amount of water needed, since fresh water is becoming more 0:04:18.120 --> 0:04:21.680 and more scarce as populations of human beings rise and 0:04:21.800 --> 0:04:25.520 as climate changes. The other concern is the amount of 0:04:25.560 --> 0:04:29.680 carbon dioxide created while turning coal into oil. This is 0:04:29.720 --> 0:04:32.760 the same concern that arises when producing oil from tar 0:04:32.839 --> 0:04:36.840 sands and oil shale. What might be a better way 0:04:36.880 --> 0:04:41.320 to address the problem. One proposed solution is oil from algae, 0:04:41.320 --> 0:04:46.360 which we've discussed in several previous podcasts. Algae cells naturally 0:04:46.400 --> 0:04:50.640 contain oil, both as a method of flotation and as 0:04:50.680 --> 0:04:55.000 a way of storing energy. High oiled strains of algae 0:04:55.040 --> 0:04:58.120 can be bred, and those strains of algae are very 0:04:58.200 --> 0:05:00.880 easy to grow. You may have noticed that algae will 0:05:00.880 --> 0:05:02.920 grow in a bucket of water that you leave out 0:05:02.960 --> 0:05:06.920 on your back porch. Then it's relatively easy to extract 0:05:06.920 --> 0:05:09.800 the oil from algae. One way is to simply press 0:05:09.839 --> 0:05:13.159 it out with a big hydraulic press. The advantage of 0:05:13.200 --> 0:05:16.360 oil from algae is that it's a very green process, 0:05:16.680 --> 0:05:20.080 it's sustainable, and it's also something that can be done 0:05:20.160 --> 0:05:25.200 anywhere in the United States. Be sure to check out 0:05:25.200 --> 0:05:28.400 our new video podcast, Stuff from the Future. Join how 0:05:28.440 --> 0:05:30.960 Stuff Work staff as we explore the most promising and 0:05:31.040 --> 0:05:35.960 perplexing possibilities of tomorrow. The How Stuff Works iPhone app 0:05:36.000 --> 0:05:38.680 has arrived. Download it today on iTunes.