what could we use instead of crude oil

Question: what could we use instead of crude oil
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- Royal Society of Chemistry: Find out more about:
  
  crude oil
Asked by Jorja to Sarah, Sankar, Jo, Becky, Alan on 13 Mar 2015.
- Jo Sadler answered on 13 Mar 2015:
  
  There are lots of alternatives to crude oil. One popular one at the moment that is being researched a lot is the use of biofuels. This basically means any fuel derived from biomass,most often plant derived. W can convert this biomass into different fuels like gas, ethanol or biodiesel which can be used like the fuels we get from crude oil. The advantage is that plants are renewable, so we don’t need to worry so much about running out. On the other hand, when you burn them you still generate carbon dioxide, so they are not as green as electricity generated by (eg) wind or solar. But definitely a step in the right direction!
- Becky Gregory answered on 14 Mar 2015:
  
  There are lots of alternatives to crude oil currently being researched for use. Biofuels is a big area of research at the moment, and my research actually looks at enzymes that can break down the large compounds in biomass to create these biofuels.
  Biofuels include both bioethanol and biodiesel, and are currently being produced in industry using both chemical and physical techniques. Hopefully it won’t be long until it can be produced cheaply and efficiently enough to replace crude oil.
- Sarah Kirk answered on 16 Mar 2015:
  
  Good question! The short answer is: plants.
  
  A bit more detail….we make lots of things from crude oil, including petrol and medicines. These are very different things, so will need to be made different ways using different plants.
  
  Biofuel is an alternative to petrol, and can be made by feeding bacteria or yeast with sugars from plants.
  
  Medicines are more complicated chemicals which require fancier materials. At the moment we are looking at trying to extract chemicals like these from wood by breaking it down. Specifically, we are trying to break down a part of the wood called lignin.
  
  So plants are a good source of different chemicals, we just need to find out which ones and how to get what we need out of them.
- Alan McCue answered on 16 Mar 2015:
  
  Probably the most simplistic replacement for crude oil is ‘synthetic oil’. It is possible to convert carbon monoxide and hydrogen into synthetic crude oil. You first make carbon monoxide and hydrogen from natural gas, coal, or ‘biomass’ – plants and left over stuff! The advantage of this process is we can use existing cars and petrol stations etc…
  
  The main limitation for any real alternative to oil is simply cost – until something is cheaper than oil (or more realistically oil is more expensive) we will continue to use crude.

Question: what could we use instead of crude oil

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