Oil from plants.

[matrixscarface]

Does anyone know how exactly crude oil is extracted out of the juices of the gopher plant. i know a man named melvin calvin did it. and it was reported that a barrel of crude could be produced at twenty dollars! how? :hihi:

[HydrogenBond]

I am not sure of the exact process but it usually goes something like this. Since the goal is oil which is a hydrocarbon, one will use a light weight organic solvent that is essentually insoluble in water, i.e, butane may work. When the juices mix with this solvent, in countercurrent flow, the oil phase goes into the solvent and juices become water. Being lightweight and low boliing one evaporates the solvent for recycle, using a small side stream of oil. Any butane in the water is easy to recycle using solar heat.

 

If the oil in the plant is close to burnable, already, I would get very simple and extract it with gasoline. No boiling necessary. Just burn the combo, alterring the rate of solvent phase to get the correct blend. Place this in settling tanks to remove traces of water. You're good to go.

[matrixscarface]

 

could butanol be used?

[Michaelangelica]

Is this it?

http://cals.arizona.edu/pima/gardening/aridplants/Euphorbia_rigida.html

 

It is an euphorbia.

I would be surprised if it contained anything other than white, sticky, toxic sap.

[HydrogenBond]

I am not sure of the composition of the oil. Butanol may work in the lab but might create some practical problems during scale-up, due to the energy and process requirement needed for recycle. Butane was chosen because it is a reasonably good organic solvent that boils near room temperature. This makes it easier to recycle using very little energy. Solar heating alone could work for evaporation.

 

Usually sticky oils contain both water and organics, with the white sap appearing to be an emulsion of the two. A little pre-drying will help lower the water content. Extraction through gasoline, would remove the organic fraction into the gasoline (octane instead of butane) with the aqueous phase sinking to the bottom. Reducing the water with pre-drying will reduce the amount of water needed to be treated before discharge.

[matrixscarface]

could this replace oil form wells.. the same thing we get gasoline, plastics and all that fun stuff? :lol:

[Michaelangelica]

I'm still not sure if I believe it but how can the web be wrong?

http://www.pinkmonkey.com/studyguides/subjects/biology-edited/chap9/b0909501.asp

some of the latex-producing plants of families Euphorbiaceae, Apocynaceae, Asclepiadaceae, Sapotaceae, Moraceae, Dipterocarpaceae, etc. are petroplants. Similarly, sunflower (family Composiae), Hardwickia pinnata (family Leguminosae) are also petroplants.

Some algae also produce hydrocarbons.

 

(:hyper: Euphorbia : Different species of Euphorbia (Fig. 9.3) of family Euphorbiaceae serve as the petroplants. Dr. M. Calvin (1979) was the first to collect the hydrocarbons from plants of Euphorbiaceae.

He suggested that these can be the renewable substitute for the conventional petroleum sources.

Latex of Euphorbia lathyrus contains fairly high percentage of terpenoids.

These can be converted into high grade transportation fuel. Similarly the carbohydrates (hexoses) from such plants can be used for ethanol formation.

Some old pricing here on Mole plant Euphorbia lathyris

http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/duke_energy/Euphorbia_lathyris.html

Harvesting

At Davis, drying the petroleum plant is more difficult than drying oil seeds. Plants harvested and left in early October were not dry enough for milling and hexane extraction by early November.

Yields and Economics

White et al. (1971) reported seed (or fruit) yields of more than 3 MT/ha from Beltsville (annual precipitation ca 10 dm, annual temperature ca 13°C). The seeds contain nearly 50% oil, suggesting a potential seed oil yield of 1.5 MT. In Sun Times (October, 1980) we read that Diamond Shamrock hopes to set 25 barrels of oil per acre from the latex. "Cost estimates for oil from gopherweed range from $20 to $60 a barrel, compared to the current oil world price of $32 a barrel." The bottom line, from an energy point of view, may rest nearer. Sachs et al. (1981) who conclude that hydrocarbons from Euphorbia lathyris would have to sell for $150 to $200 a barrel to be a practical source of fuel. They got lower yields with propotionately higher biocrude contents on their unirrigated plots. McLaughlin et al. (1982) report biomass yields of 14 MT/ha/yr with 8% biocrude for a biocrude yield of 8.6 barrels per hectare at a cost of $104/barrel ($31/GJ).

They talk about energy used in recovery. Still nothing on HOW? Maybe traditional distillation? as for essential oils?

Energy

There is a bewildering array of reported yields for the petroleum plant, 22 MT DM/ha (Nemethy et al., 1980), 19.8–24.7 barrels/ha/yr (mentioned by Sachs et al., 1981), 16.3–19.3 MT DM/ha/yr (irrigated, Sachs et al., 1981), 10.3–14.7 MT DM/ha/yr (fertilizer tests, Sachs, et al., 1981), 20–25 barrels/ha/yr (Calvin, 1980). Calvin's early estimates of supplying gasoline sufficient to satisfy U.S. requirements by planting an area the size of Arizona to Euphorbia lathyris (40 barrels per acre). None of the estimates published in the 80's approach that yield. Sachs et al. (1981) realized yields were closer to 5 barrels per hectare, suggesting it might take 20 Arizona's not one, to satisfy U.S. petroleum needs, if planted to Euphorbia lathyris. According to Nemethy et al. (1980), the heptane extract has a low oxygen content and a heat value of 42 MJ/kg which is comparable to those of crude oil (44 MJ/kg). Perhaps they are also optimistic in suggesting that the potential Euphorbia lathyris yield is equal to that of sugar cane (11.7 x 104 MJ ha/yr) adding the oil yield (6.5) and the alcohol yield (5.2 x 104 MJ ha/yr).

Still, in the Sun Times (October 1980, p. 15) an anonymous source says, "Melvin Calvin, Nobel laureate in chemistry, believes that the U.S. could produce more than 2 million barrels a day of gopheroll by 1985.

The Department of Energy has granted Calvin $250,000 to continue his research. Marvin Bagby, head of the Agriculture Department's hydrocarbon-plant research project, thinks that gopherweed is the leader among forty-five hydrocarbon-bearing plants that have commercial promise.

McLaughlin et al (1982) project a biocrude yield of 41.8 GJ with a bagasse yield of 216.4 GJ/ha/yr.

Assuming a 300,000 MT/yr processing facility, the total energy requirements would be 1285 x 1012 J, the gross production of biocrude 895, the net electricity production 1343 for a total net energy production of 953 x 1012 J at a cost of $28/GJ or $104/bbl for the biocrude. The biocrude energy yield is exceeded by the energy requirements, but the bagasse yield more than compensates.

maybe you make a stew?

This guy likes long involved sentences.

http://www.freepatentsonline.com/4338399.html

Process for recovering hydrocarbons from hydrocarbon-containing biomass

Document Type and Number: United States Patent 4338399

Link to this Page: http://www.freepatentsonline.com/4338399.html

Abstract: A process for enzymatically converting whole plant biomass containing hydrocarbon-containing laticifers to soluble sugars and recovering hydrocarbons in increased yields which comprises hydrolyzing whole plant cellulosic material in the presence of enzymes, particularly cellulase, hemicellulase, and pectinase, to produce a hydrocarbon product and recovering from the hydrolysis products a major proportion of the cellulase, hemicellulase and pectinase enzymes for reuse.

At least some portion of the required make-up of cellulase, hemicellulase and pectinase enzymes is produced in a two-stage operation wherein, in the first stage, a portion of the output sugar solution is used to grow enzyme secreting microorganisms selected from the group consisting of cellulase-secreting microorganisms, hemicellulase-secreting microorganisms, pectinase-secreting microorganisms, and mixtures thereof, and in the second stage, cellulase, hemicellulase and pectinase enzyme formation is induced in the microorganism-containing culture medium by the addition of an appropriate inducer such as biomass.

The cellulase, hemicellulase and pectinase enzymes are then recycled for use in the hydrolysis reaction

.

Amazing petrol from plants; who would of thought it.

 

There are at least two botanical names for Gopher plant.

[matrixscarface]

saying the obvious, $20 a barrel is peanuts compaired to todays... somewhere around $70.. the thing about oil is today its cheap.. tomorrow its really expensive, and a week later back to a little higher than before.. that market has no stability. for a steady supply of oil to be at a set price.. would be well worth research.

[Michaelangelica]

saying the obvious, $20 a barrel is peanuts compaired to todays... somewhere around $70.. the thing about oil is today its cheap.. tomorrow its really expensive, and a week later back to a little higher than before.. that market has no stability. for a steady supply of oil to be at a set price.. would be well worth research.

 

Yes I agree

Reseach is definately needed.

I would invesst money in it

We will have to stop using oil for cars soon and use oil for the things it only can do.

 

Doesen't all oil come from plants originally anyhow?

 

I wonder if these varieties of plants are older botanically and therefore the source of present day oil???