It looks like Mother Nature was wasting her time with a
multimillion-year process to produce crude oil. Michigan Engineering
researchers can "pressure-cook" algae for as little as a minute and
transform an unprecedented 65 percent of the green slime into biocrude.
"We're trying to mimic the process in nature that forms
crude oil with marine organisms," said Phil Savage, an Arthur F. Thurnau
professor and a professor of chemical engineering at the University of
Michigan.
The findings will be presented Nov. 1 at the 2012 American
Institute of Chemical Engineers Annual Meeting in Pittsburgh.