Petrochemicals - can we survive without them?
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 30 ก.ย. 2024
- Petrochemicals dominate every aspect of our daily lives. Without them, the vast majority of people in western industrialised countries would perish very quickly. Nature has shown us how to produce all the chemicals we need for our modern day lifestyles without digging up any more oil. The question is are we smart enough to harness natures gift, and wise enough to use it sustainably?
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Research links
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DuPOnt
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Liberate
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#petrochemicals #biochemicals #bioplastics
I thought was going to be all doom and gloom, but I'm encouraged by the amount of research that's going on.
That's why we like him, no fearmongering, his videos are always hopeful.
We can do this vs we're all going to die!!!
I am wondering about breakdown after use, tossed on the side of the road, does it dissolved into a plant fertilizer in 5 years?
Yes but like he said, the cornerstone is land use. The amount of arable land in the world is finite while humans can reproduce endlessly. There should be a globally enforced 1 child policy, without it all efforts to stop climate change are doomed to fail.
@@apacheattackhelicopter8185 Yes, I agree we do have to stop reproducing. Do you think as social justice, equity and fair share living standards are recognised & implemented that population levels will stabilise at lower levels as the European nations have demonstrated for a decade or more? Or we'll continue to increase despite the aforementioned? I don't know the probability, haven't worked the numbers or studied the subject. If we continue BAU we'll decline rapidly for certain starting in the next 15 years or so I would think, but that's another subject.
@@brianwheeldon4643 I think it depends on culture a lot. In countries where women are seen as equal to men and can get education and work, the birth rates will drop. But in countries where women are seen as inferior and only good for birthing children, they will remain high, e.g. Gulf and African countries.
Also, even in European countries there needs to be an understanding that low birth rates are necessary. Right now they are bringing in African migrants and paying them child benefits to artificially inflate the birth rates.
@@brianwheeldon4643 well, half the population have scared off all suitors.
Ask how many men want a screaming Caren on their arm, the answer is zero problem solved.
Some of our most psychotic leaders came from only child homes.
China aborted almost a billion babies, all girls.
They learned there weren't enough females for the number of men. A whole generation childless...
I love you and this channel. Information without a political slant is increasingly rare these days. This is a valuable service that should be larger than it is
I guess it depends on who signs your paycheck whether this channel is political or not
OffGrid Wanabe that’s the problem
OffGrid Wanabe science isn’t a political apparatus except when it is. Lol
Sadly, nowadays everything is political. If it is fact-based, it will be accused of being "politically motivated". When it is "alt-fact" based, it is paid for by the other. That's quite simple.
@@bazoo513 I agree but denial of facts seems to be common place with a lot of people, How can this be is the world flat lol
LOVE this channel! You are talking about the big issues that nobody in the mainstream is even thinking about.
Industrial hemp is high in cellulose, uses less land and water, grows in 4 months and can restore damaged soil
FORD motor made a car from HEMP , Stronger than Plastic.
@@markplott4820 1937
Same can be said for Flax, but that's not good enough for the trendoids
@Frenchpie you can grow it in arid/deforested/degraded land. It will restore the soil after 1 yr then you can plant trees there and start again in another area
There's about 5 billion acres of deforested and desertified land around the world
Lol you guys actually think we can manage the climate by reducing production and changing materials. The only way is by nuclear fission and fusion to supply enough energy for carbon capture and geoengineering. These ideas of switching away from petrochemicals is reaching for your left ear with your right hand
Don't forget asphalt for pavement and roofing products. All petrochemicals.
Yes but it's not part of the "top 3" that he mentions in this video because 98% of asphalt is recycled
@@BrantAxt It's also the "tailings". The leftovers after distillation. It's a "waste" product, but it's useful for roads.
@@MajorMalfunction Its useful for lowering earth albido which is really bad.
In U.S. pulp mills, the lignin which is dissolved in the spent pulping chemical is burned in boilers to produce steam to heat the pulping process and to spin turbines to generate electricity to power the mill so it isn't really wasted. During the lignin burning process, the pulping chemical is converted back to a sulfate for reuse in the mill. As far as making polymers from green plants is concerned, I worry that our industrial agriculture is already unsustainable due to surface and groundwater depletion, excessive soil erosion and reduced rainfall due to climate change. Granted if we weren't using so much our corn crop in the U.S. for ethanol production (a loser energy wise), we could feed more people, but even our current corn production is unsustainable. I'm old so I won't likely to see the crunch that comes in 10-20 years when world population reaches 9-10 billion, but I worry for future generations.
Well said !
Don’t worry a war will probably wipe a bunch out before then. Joking!
I think you've really got something there, SheepTrees. Could that sort of thing be done on an industrial scale?
So these algae farms would be right on the coast? It sounds like they need to be as close as possible to the sea for easy access to saltwater. The areas you mention certainly have a lot of arid land next to oceans.
If anything that should make it easier to eventually use algae farms for the production of different petrochemicals. All they'd have to do is change the refining technique at the end of the process.
Damn it! At a quick glance I thought this said "Can we survive without Pterodactyls?"
Well obviously we can't survive without them ;-)
It's actually about Pterodactlys juice to be precise.
Our ever-increasing addiction to energy consumption per capita is our species' existential downfall. In other words, infinite growth on a finite planet is utter insanity for the possibility of a near term future for most life forms on earth.
Earl, did you by chance learn the term 'existential' from those people that are now promoting the new term... 'Re-imagine' police reform... boy they use such big words and must be very smart!.. How's that working so far... I see more tree huggin Subaru drivers parking in front of my house running their car with the AC on, sometimes for an hour or more looking in their phone or viewing the eagles by the lake in front of my house on a warm day.. All the time.. WTF gives.. I've filled up twice since this wuflu shit started in my rig and I ain't not tree hugger, but retired existential professional beer drinker
infinite stasis on a finite planet is the real malthusian insanity. BTW there are other planets with resources.
@@mdombroski we can't go there tho
@@robbenvanpersie1562 Tell that to Elon Musk.
You've become my weekly enciclopedia reading, Dave! I've commented in Patreon, as I find the trolls are taking over TH-cam, just like Twitter.
Thanks Mark. I'll head over to Patreon after checking out all the comments here :-)
Nice work! An additional challenge: as we use less oil for energy, it will become cheaper, making it harder to stop using it for other uses.
"Nice try, Kaiba, but I activate the Trap Card DEPOLYMERIZATION! This converts the lignins in your wood and straw into flavorings, antioxidants, and polyamides!"
I thought the HEMP plant alone could be used to replace the use of fossil fuels for use in making plastics and you didn't mention HEMP at all, did I miss something?
Hi Edward. We have a full video scheduled to look just at Hemp. Might be in the New Year though.
At least in terms of PE and PET, you forgot to mention the depolymization technologies, that allow for 100% recycling of Virgin plast waste. Rather than making new plasts, we can reuse what we have already.
Nitrogen fertilizers you can produce out of air (and currently natural gas). But I'd be way more worried about where to get phosphorus. Lack of phosphorus could really hit world agricultural production badly.
Isn't PLA only compostable in municipal facilities? PHA is the one the decomposes in the natural environment. PLA is okay once we have a better waste management system though. Also PHA is supposed to be able to be made from food waste. This is where I got the idea but idk if they've really taken off yet or not fullcyclebioplastics.com/
Recycling lignin looks good, but glucose is usually derived from corn which is a heavy user of petrochemicals, so I don't see how that helps. Perhaps there is some way to determine the actual CO2 input of each of these "solutions" before we just accept them.
Thanks for a wonderful channel. As I understand it plastics sourced from plant based sources are little better than plastics derived from fossil fuels (fossil fuels are of course already 100% organic). In your article you seemed to concentrate on the source of the plastics rather than their biodegradability, but the biodegradability is the real problem. I know some work has been done on improving this in plastics, but I've only seen progress on composting under commercial conditions so far, which unfortunately excludes household composting and of course these plastics would probably not degrade in a landfill or a sea either. I would be very interested on seeing an article from you on progress made in plastics which are fully compostable under normal household composting methods (in approx 6 months or so).
Yes, lots of positive developments thanks Dave, and that necessary note of caution about land use. It really does focus attention on our 'throw-away culture'. My parents didn't waste much back in the fifties and early sixties, and it looks like the culture has developed, with the assistance of the marketing industry, in the space of about 60 years, or around two generations. My resolution this year was to cut right back on buying drinks in plastic bottles, but i have been re-using these marvels of lightweight design time and time again when going out for exercise or outings. A further advantage is that the plasticiser (phalates etc) which infuses into the contents reduces with repeated use, as plasticises have been linked with health issues, such as the global fall in sperm count. Eventually bottles become brittle and crack, but i have yet to lose one this year.
I worry about the land use and carbon footprint of bio-based chemicals. It might be worth looking at where the CO2 comes from in making petrochemicals from oil. Oil is distilled and fractionated, and that requires a lot of heat. Currently the heat is provided by burning hydrocarbons. I think this industrial process heat represents the majority of the CO2 produced. It should be possible to use a different source of heat that was clean. It would be good to concentrate on the highest volume petrochemical products, like plastics, and ignore the minor ones like perfume, so as to not spread ourselves too thin. As long as the plastics aren't burned, the carbon contained in them remains sequestered. If it eventually ends up in a landfill, then it's just going back in the ground that it came from, and it never gets into the atmosphere. That is not a bad outcome.
I'm not convinced of a significant impact of humans on global temperature. Pollution is a problem however.
I am convinced that as the highest form of life on this planet (as far as we know), it is our responsibility to take care of it, as it is our home, and the home of our progeny.
We should pursue all technologies that benefit the environment and benefit of all life on this planet, ours included.
Thanks for another great video. You have a new subscriber. You keep me busy watching your videos.
The correct question should be: Can we survive with Petrochemicals?
Lmao so true
Completely misses his non-political target. Those who think burning wood or other agricultural products is that much different than burning petrochemicals have failed Organic Chemistry. His point to SIDE-STEP "change for change-sake" and look for real-life improvements.
Alarmist nonsense from a manipulated computer virtual reality program. The ice cores show that there is a corellation between temp and CO2, but CO2 LAGS temperature. You cannot "drive" something when you happen LATER than it does.
At least he brought up the land use issue. Something tells me this is pie in the sky thinking that these chemicals can replace more than about 5% of the plastics and synthetics that come from oil. That subject was not addressed at all, probably because this strategy has no hope of significantly cutting into the market for petrochemicals.
As a chemist and working in the coating and polymer business, I had a look at some of the monomers you mentioned (FDCA and itaconic) and they worked as well as the petrol counterparts. That was a couple of years ago and the price point and the availability were the bottlenecks. I guess with economy of scale they may be overcome. As several other topics, they really get a boost when some new legislation forces producers to use alternatives, lika what is happening with bisphenol and the like.
AS A CHEMIST, Gianluigi, you must know that any plant through photosynthesis must capture, through the stomata 1.467 kg of your dreaded co2 in the air for every kg glucose it produces. How about having a think, considering that the co2 content is 0.49 Gram/m³ air.
@@arturoeugster2377 yeah, photosynthesis takes CO2 from the air and produces sugars, when sun light is available.
Modern building blocks, like those I mentioned, can be made via enzymatic catalysis, accelerating natural paths dramatically. Some raw material producers are now marketing those. The only issue, still is price
@@gianluigicassin868
I am all for efficiency or other improvements , that includes tasks , which have just a potential, to be realized with a key invention, not apparent at the time..
Our problem, is the accute lack of co2 content in the low density air, due to high elevation and higher than standard temperatures
0.22 grams/m³.
The region has 10^6 empoverised people.
The threat of negative co2 growth, as planned must be taken seriously. So, supplemental local co2 addition is a doable approach.
Bolivians have never been able to win concessions from any Power.
Any way the construction of a continious supply of housing is happening, and the normal cement production by the decalcification of lime stone produces large amounts of co2, that no Nation can deny us.
a great deal threre of will be dedicated to plastic enclosed tents.
The relocation of cement factories to the region, supports 2 activities. Building and Feeding.
All options are open.
David, new tier channel I wanted to thank you for making me think about the important topics that you raise. Your videos are well organized and the subject matter will presented, your pronunciation chemical names is remarkable. When selecting products I usually just recognize the word and don't even try to pronounce them.
Thanks Mack. I really appreciate your support. All the best. Dave
I love this channel, well researched, but still understable for a non-expert without a politacal angle. Thank you for your service.
Of course yes. Bioengineering adn a renaissance in hemp use should replace most of plastics
and hemp can be a 3x a year crop in most regions
There is already a biological alternative to plastic developed 30 years ago. Nobody w9ill use it as it's patented and they want to keep the money for themselves. I know one of the guys that worked on it.
and algae !
Hemp the magic weed probably one of the most useful plant ever one of strongest natural fibres, vegetable oil from its seeds can produce all sorts of things from that food or many other bio chemicals good nitrogen fixing crop the list goes on and on can grow in nearly every where even hydroponically, I find it funny that Dupont is getting into bio chemicals after probation in the states Dupont was one of the companies which helped ban hemp in the late 1920's
No mention of Industrial Hemp on this video maybe is because a lot of people still ignorant about it
your video's are absolutely amazing
super informative
Keep up the good work mr. Really good content all your videos are👍👍
Come on, this conflates petrochemicals with burning petrol. They are just not comparable in terms of pollution.
Good point. Mankind has been around many millennia without either. If it's necessary to give up one of them to drastically reduce CO2, jt wouldn't have to be petrochemicals. But plastics are still polluting the earth, so something less polluting should replace them.
@@acmefixer1 Well, using that logic then we should not mine for aluminum, iron, or anything else for that matter, since eventually it will become a pollutant.
Another way is to control the materials we take our of the earth. The first step, obviously is to classify according to biodegradability, like paper and wood, and things that are not biodegradable, like metals and plastics, but even those biodegrade at some time level (and we can adjust that time, and are learning how now).
This is similar to the argument that we have to ban plastics because they end up in the oceans. They certainly do, but I don't see anyone tossing straws in the ocean (or sticking them up turtles noses). The answer is there are nations that still dump their trash in the Oceans. Like China and India. And that's a solvable problem (stop doing that please).
We have the answer, which is to close the loop on material use cycles. Adjusting what goes into products works. San Francisco uses a very passible paper straw at Mcdonalds. But no other Mcdonalds uses it (yet). When I was a kid (yes, a long time ago), the streets and beaches were filled with trash because people threw it out the window and discarded it on beaches. You had to live then and now to realize how much better that has gotten. Aluminum didn't use to be recycled. Now it is recycled to extremes. People walk down my street in the morning picking through the trash for aluminum cans. Rusted cars used to litter the landscape. Now they get grabbed up for scrap. I could go on and on.
Plastics are infinitely recyclable, they just need to be remelted. There is the issue of determining the actual type of plastics in recycling, and collecting and uniting the same formulations of plastics, but I believe we are solving that problem now.
Why no food processing and production competition was included? Also, why some of the products that cannot be produced from biomass were not included and commented on? Also, what about economy of scale and production costs and efficiencies that makes petrochemicals more attractive? Also, why no comment on developing countries and their NEED for cheap, reliable, petrochemical products?
It's a great and well researched video, don't get me wrong. But I think it is one-sided and does not convey the real complexity behind these issues and topics.
he's feeding the delusions of the green lobby. ultimately it's dangerous as these delusions are becoming more and more widespread.
I was engaged by this episode but I was shocked not hear mention of Hemp, a source of bio plastics, graphene and food. 1 acre of hemp produces the equivalent of 5 acres of trees and locks up carbon into the bargain! ?
How about low tech alternative such as taxing one use plastics? And going back to paper and glass.
For example reusing glass containers, by returning them to a store that got its products and goods in bulk containers (that could be reused too). That could use automate cleaning and refilling of the glass containers.
Which would also be far more efficient way to transport the good. Since it not only reuses the containers and moving part of the production closer to the consumer... Just a thought.... (sorry I'm not cool enough to say "Just Have a Think")
Glass containers have been used for millennia. But I know of at least two people who were seriously injured by a broken glass container. Glass has advantages and disadvantages. The bottles can be made safe by being replaced by thick, multiple use plastic, just like the water delivery companies did with the 5 gallon (19 liter) plastic water bottles, which used to be glass.
AF, I agree, we should understand the risks and trades offs of all of the packaging materials we use and consume over our lifetime. Such as plastic bottles including BPA, that injures all of us without, us fully knowing all the effects (including straws, bag and all one use plastic) .
Also the recyclable glass containers were virtually indestructible in normal use. They had to be, since they went thru an automated cleaning machine, that would have broke a normal glass container. Saw some soda/pop bottles that were covered in scratches and nicks, without breaking.
FWIW, I knew a sandwich shop owner who was seriously injured by the lid from a tin can container.
BTW I know I'm in the minority in our, one use throwaway society.... That prefer the easy route, of having feel good bio-plastics replace evil-petro plastics, even if they are often worse over their life cycle. Since growing the bio feedstocks for them has a cost too....
Actually the change from glass to PET for softdrink bottles has significantly reduced the impact of transporting softdrinks. Just try to remember how heavy those glass bottles used to be. And PET is reuasble too.
Actually its just pathetic plastic industry 'propaganda' to mention plastic is recyclable.... Since the fact is we are drowning in discarded plastic waste, including PET and locally reused glass containers had and would have a far lower footprint than making the pile discarded plastic grow even higher...SMH
@@nc3826 Just bacause you are incapable of handling your garbage properly doesnt mean everyone else is too. We DO NOT have any huge piles of discarded PET bottles here in Denmark since most of them by far are in our recycling system - a system we had in place for glass bottles long before PET was invented. There are people who go actively hunting for discarded bottles to get the refund for handing them in at the store. We also have an extensive up to date system taking care of the collection and handling of our garbage. Non-recyclable plastic can be used as fuel to generate electricity and heat, so why let it drown you when its so easy to safely dispose of ?
That they just throw eveything into the local river thast hen takes everything to sea in countries like Vietnam doenst mean that it CANNOT be handled properly - just that they cannot be bothered to.
Why do you claim the PET cannot be recycled when it evidently is ?
I said a long time ago "what if, as it gets hotter, more start buying air conditioners?" Nobody ever commented... This is why I said we aren't going to solve the environmental crisis, and that civilization, as we know it, is coming to an end.
Yep. I think the 'Cooling' video will be pretty scary
People like to rearrange the deck chairs on a Titanic set of problems.
Yes, demand for cooling is excuse pun, exploding. Climate change is also drying out many previously arable areas. Expect demand for desalination to escalate
All cotton on me baby 😉 ...... another good video David, Thank you for that.❤️
Help David on Patreon .
Thanks Bo. I appreciate that :-)
One of the things that drives me bat $hit crazy is that we had a solution for the nitrogen fertiliser issue in the Medieval period. At the time farmers just knew crop rotation was a good idea and that peas did something that made the next years crop of something else grow better. Now we know that a bacteria in the pea roots fixes nitrogen quite well. We have got out of the habit of eating as many peas as our ancestors did. If we paid the farmers a decent amount for them and ate peas instead of some other forms of carbohydrates that would be far better than artificial fertilisers. Yes they have a much lower percentage of carbs than many other carbs sources but that would be a good thing for many people.
You're right, but you could just eat more peas and if you convinced other people to do that, you'd naturally adjust supply and demand.
If nobody bought corn it's price would collapse.
@@expressionoffreedom7165 If nobody bought corn its price would explode, because its production would reflect the consumption, so it would become rare and expensive. But corn is mainly used for the livestock, isn't it ?
peas and beans are tasty
@@Elviloh if everybody ate more peas they have to eat less meat as well.
I thought you were going to state that urine is the best fertiliser of all the organic additives for soil, (blood etc).
Not fully utilised these days. Don't they put those nutrients in the rivers?
But no. A different variety of pee.
Dave, another excellent presentation! And you are keenly aware of the caveots surrounding biomass solutions; many thanks. I like bioplastics, they make good sense from many perspectives, but one concern I have is will they eventually break down and not clog up our oceans and lakes? And maybe we need to focus more on quality over quantity, making better products that are both eco friendly and truly durable, like a Rolls Royce approach to goods? That and the dark force of our energy universe, insulation and efficiency vs. more production, might help in the cooling sector. Keep on making great waves in the presentations, you're a bright spot in our otherwise gloomy news world!!
Thanks Chuck. Much appreciated :-)
Great Video as always
Thanks for sharing :-)
What about synthesising the petrochemicals from scratch, ie, from hydrogen and carbon? is this even theoretically feasible at all? (Poly-)Ethylene does not sound like too hard to produce since we already have the technology to synthesize other hydrocarbon gases. Of course, hydrogen must be green, and the carbon could be captured from the incineration of the old plastics. Just like syngas, it is unlikely to be net carbon neutral, but as long as we don't get any carbon out of the ground and we take most of the energy from the sun, it should somehow close the cycle of the carbon usage in plastics. While not all of our energy is solar yet, the combustion process itself would produce part of the energy needed to help the transition. This should solve both land use and disposal of used plastic items,
Yes indeed you can. The US Navy is well advanced in processes to synthesized petrochemicals from seawater. The H2 comes from the water molecules and the C from dissolved carbon dioxide. It is then just a matter of heat, pressure and catalysts to get whatever petrochemical you need m.th-cam.com/video/YUUMz3Uv0ps/w-d-xo.html
The amazing Charlie predicts: The Great Carbon Rush. When corporate America realizes there's a bonanza in utilizing atmospheric carbon and sunlight to replace petrochemicals, we'll have to tax them for extracting too much carbon out of the atmosphere.
that post actually made me laugh
The carbon from natural gas can be used. And some day the technology may exist to utilize clathrates.
Charles, You're so right.. Great twist, i love it!
@@alfonsomunoz4424 Wow... such a deep subject Al... If we can put Democrats on mars we can extract that also without a tax..
I am jealous of how good you are this. These vids are fabulous.
You rock! Your channel is a light beacon of honest knowledge in the rubbish pile of disinformation in these dark days. All the best of success.
Well Mister Think is Mister Stink on thermodynamics, but he rocks otherwise. He tries anyway. I appreciate he tries.
Like and comment to appease the almighty algorithm
Thanks for addressing the elephant in the room at 13:30.
@14:17 my moment of fame 😁. You make a magnificanft extremely informed channel. Thank you!
Until the world starts to think of the would as something to be cherished, a good life as the profits of doing good rather then the unrelenting drive for monetary profits and we start to reduce the population of our planet we will lose the battle. We are not all on the same level in the wY we view the planet nature and humanity.
Reducing global population is essential, in my opinion. Any solution, even the most environmentally friendly will have drastic impact if it has to serve the growing human population.
Unfortunately it is still a tabu argument.
@Up-a-Creek I don't have kids. Haven't needed any abortions or sterilisation. All it takes is education and access to contraceptives. The single biggest factor in how many children a woman gives birth to is is education level. You don't need death camps. No, you also don't need nuclear.
This plan of converting food in to petrochemical product should lead to reducing population. That's the whole point, right? ;)
@@PinataOblongata "The single biggest factor in how many children a woman gives birth to is is education level." Also known as dysgenics. Future is going to be interesting either way.
@Up-a-Creek _Yes, over population is a huge problem... so what do YOU think we should do about it as good people?_
There is plenty of things we can do, but in my opinion they all comes down to education.
I wouldn't go the way China enforced the "one child policy" because is not informing anyone on the *why* we have to do this with the result of making everybody pissed.
So first of all we have to start discussing, calmly and rationally, about why overpopulation is such a huge problem and why with way less people we all could live better without stressing too much our environment.
Then we can start with legislations. Why someone that has 3, 4 or more kids should get progressively more economical incentives? We could change that. 1st child you get the max you can get. 2nd child you get less, 3rd nothing after that you start to pay taxes.
_which is more important, Human Life or the Health and Survival of the Planet?_
As I see it they are not in opposition, actually to go hand in hand. If we don't preserve our planet we put human life at huge risk.
_something has to die_
Well no, we have to find a balance otherwise the balance will be forced on us by nature itself.
_when do you open up the extermination camps of the poor, insane, and less intelligent or the mandatory abortion and sterilization clinic?_
There is no need for this off course, if we act in time. Reducing population is something we can do slowly and progressively. If we all understand why overpopulation is a problem, then it will become natural to have 1 or max two kids and it will become irresponsible to have 3 or more.
Imperfect analogy, I know, but when I was a kid (in Italy) was almost impossible to ask somebody to don't smoke close to you, even in public, closed spaces. A combination of legislations and *education* made possible today that I don't even need to ask any more: People know better than smoke in, for example, a restaurant, or close to a kid etc...
_Oh, WAIT!!... if we don't develop efficient nuclear power withing the next 20 years we won't have the power to feed the billions of people and they'll just starve... 😉_
And now I think you were ironic all the time :)
Either way, I believe discussing this issue is important.
Edilus bamboo is a rich source of lignin and is also edible as shoots. It also grows up to 3 feet a day
4:13 What about synthetic fertilizer, diesel, and machinery used for growing crops.
Glue from wood sounds promising :) Although we should use less paper, to begin with :)
Nature has been fertilizing plants for years... millions of them! Permaculture, organic farming, etc are becoming more popular and don't require artificial fertilizers
@@ThomasBomb45 have you ever done any farming?
If enough people transitioned to a plant based diet we would be able to free up agricultural land used for raising and feeding livestock and use some of this land for biomass crops.
Well yes, sort of. I don't really wish to justify extravagance and waste, but these sort of arguments start from the premises that world population must necessarily keep increasing, and that there is a moral imperative for equality, that is, that it is immoral for one person to riot in superfluity, while another starves. I think maybe, that in the final analysis, that there really is but a single problem that we face (at least, there is one so large that it dwarfs all others). Consider this scenario. You wake up tomorrow morning to find that you are the last person on earth. All of the infrastructure we have built is still present, but has been left in a safe condition. For whatever reason, you decide to make it your life's mission to absolutely destroy the biosphere. I just can't imagine that whatever destruction you could wreak as a lone individual would exceed the capacity of the earth as a whole to "heal itself". Your life's work would be for nought. With a population projected to reach 11 billion however, we'll probably have to learn how to eat dirt if we're not to totally fuck everything up. Even if we stabilised at the present population and all become really conscientious with regard to the planet, it's still all downhill. Technology can only delay the inevitable. The problems that we face are just too confounded to overcome.
I'm really starting to like your channel.
lacks the existential horror or rabid denial populating other climate change platforms
@@evilotto9200 Dosent really matter how you feel about it as long as something gets done.
Most people only react through fear.
It's the easiest emotion to manipulate.
The problems the same either way.
@@evilotto9200 oh there's some existential horror too, just not as much thankfully
Coca-cola is the World’s largest consumer of plastic bottles? Not Nestle?
Do you find that hard to believe?
@Stuart Smiles :D Not hard to believe, just a little surprising.
If the population of Earth consumes more Coke than bottled water, that would be a concern. Coke (and other Coca-Cola brands) is not just sold in plastic bottles, and Coca-Cola are by no means the only manufacturer of soft drinks. Coca-Cola also sells bottled water, but Nestle is by far the world’s biggest seller of bottled water. Have a look at the Nestle brands Wiki - they own the vast majority of the world’s bottled water supply, and water is not their only brand.
I’ve no doubt that the two are bar far the two largest, but as for which is largest, that would be an interesting study.
It might be a close run thing. But first or second biggest...still billions of bottles a year :-)
It's funny to take a step back and think of *Cola's packaging mission: we are trying hard, spending millions to achieve a 100% plant based bottle so we can fill it up with various sugary solutions, entirely unnecessary to the human diet! There is an irony to the whole thing.
the difference is, cola in moderation is probably not so bad, but if we need to eventually get everything to co2 neutral than they also need to change what they do to get to 0%
@Yannis K. Cola is essential, without it the consumption of budget whiskey would only be possible by the "dead ard" or bikers. We need to be more inclusive of nancy boys and soft cocks.
Yes, the world definitely wouldn't grind to a halt if carbonated sugar drinks disappeared overnight.
@Up-a-Creek eatable packaging sounds like a great way to reduce waste !
Coke and Pepsi was sold only in glass bottles when I was a kid. They could do it again, but all they care about is money. Scr*w them.
Thank you very much for your videos
Bloody well done for being able to pronounce those chemical names. 👍
@@Azureecosse no I really meant it
I really enjoy your content. Lots to think about. Please keep up the great work.
I'd like to see an analysis of how much petrochemical-derived energy would be required to grow and harvest the feedstocks, transport them to the factories, convert them into these new plastics, and replace them in whatever usage they were originally being used for. I find it hard to believe that it wouldn't be more carbon intensive than merely using the petroleum as feedstocks in the first place.
Energy and processes can be made "green", the only question is cost.
I suspect only waste biomass (mostly cellulose or methane) and direct production via bio-engineering are viable. Extracting oil & sugar from crops is basically food, it will forever remain more expensive.
Also, any carbon product ending sequestrated may be subsidized.
@@musaran2 Maybe so, but I'm still very skeptical. I don't see how the enormous amount of stored energy that fossil fuels contain can be replaced by 'sustainable' sources. As Sid Smith tells us (see attached video link), fossil fuels aren't really a primary energy source; they're actually just energy carriers that the sun 'charged up' over hundreds of millions of years. I'm not signing on to any version of green technology until I see a comprehensive spreadsheet that accounts for all energy flows in the system. th-cam.com/video/5WPB2u8EzL8/w-d-xo.html
That's why we need to stop driving soon. We all must make huge changes in our consumption of everything.
No, you stop if you want. Don't force others to follow your ideas.
Really good show.... Really really....
Would you like to go back to the stone age?
if farming for food is a problem from a space perspective ..... how the heck do you think we can add NEW SPACE for crops for this use ???????? and its mono-culture .....thought you were against that too ????? always mass hypocritical thinking and values.....
Trucks?
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAH THESE FOOOOOOLS
Tesla Semi is getting closer and closer to release.
Air conditioning? Yeah the one thing that's more of an issue when there's more sunshine, AKA more solar energy availability. Slap some panels on the roof, problem fucking solved.
Wrong question: you should have asked about hydrocarbons. Answer is pure and simply .... YES/NO. Technically YES, because we have endured without them for most of history ... so NO. We can power vehicles with carbon neutral hydrocarbons or without them at all, but there's "small matter" of e.g. fertilizers and agriculture in general.
Wow , just wow, a new app and Your Channel grows by leaps and bounds, ... and the drawrings, ... just wow!
I simply can not thank YOU enough for all of the , ... ammunition that YOU arm us with every single episode.
This one is particular i will take particular delight in using on a certain segment of Canadian Society who's power's appear to be derived directly from the drilling,tapping and transport of the filthy New Green Carbon free OIL and Gas, .... simply a ridiculous concept permeating the pundits of Oil and Gas industries in North America.
Even Henry Ford recognized the possibilities as his original vehicle was powered by Alcohol
(Thanks goto Irving Oil and Womens Temperance Movement for stopping this madness)
He manufactured, painted and fueled a vehicle completely with industrial hemp
Thank YOU for all of YOUR efforts
Any plant needs 1.467 kg of the O-C-O molecule from the air to produce ONE kg of fructose.
one thousand m³ of air have a content of 0.49 kg of O-C-O, only a tiny fraction pass through the stomata on the leaves. Have a think!
Firstly, the beverage industry should really change the way they distribute their product. which is by doing refill and-or deposit return system using REUSABLE container. why? because if they still using the same Single Use method and just replace the material make up of the container to "eco" material, than that would be just repeating the same mistake. the stem problem is the single use and on the recycling (collecting for recycling). the single use problem is truely carbon foot print intensive like you point out in the video - more land to be use to grow the new source corps, the monoculture that destroy local ecosystem & soil-water system (look it up), etc.
Secondly, bioplastic or PLA or any scheme derrive with some parts of petrochemical plastic is totally rubish and hard to recycle.
Third, the recycling problem of collecting those waste especially in a multi island country would be terrible and uneconomical. then even if the new material is truely biodegradeable where & how people should discard them. will it be in the hand of the consumer (again n again) or will be the manufacturer corporate responsibility??? centralized (waste) collecting facility need to be presents in a Single Use container distribution of product, who is gonna take responsibility financially for that - the local goverement with their tight budget? the company brand that make the product? ... goat? duh.
Reusable & Refill is the way to go. we have many intelligent people that should come up with better solution than clinging on single use of our economy system. that would destroy us weather or not biodegradeable the material make up is. single use is shit.
Greed and Lazyness is the hurdle
greetings from the 2nd largest river polluter country in the world 🙏🏻
Well I made a huge effort June 1999 at Niagara Falls on the 160 km short hot ride by suggesting we chip in for 3 of the 23-litre bottles, split it into our plastic bottles/bladders & return the huge bottles for deposit back, but I rode with 20 Corporate Lawyers & Bond Traders so they just called me a cheapskate and got a half dozen Coca Cola waters each. The last time I ever tried anything much, complete waste of time.
@@grindupBaker keep trying mate, at any chance possible. here in the second biggest river plastic polluter country we made national chat group for people to learn, share n ask question about living (toward) zero waste & sustainable living. made a few infographic in local language and small curriculum ebook (for teacher) about ideas teaching about sustainability. from simple tips to doing voluntary cleanup (not just once a year) we try to do many things that we can, because most people dont know about it, dont why & how. teaching local goverment employee to implement zero waste office or sustainable office and so on. there are alot of things that we can do to help individual & community shift toward sustainability
You just have to mandate a deposit on the bottles that all stores MUST demand you pay and refund when you return the bottles. We have done so like forever here in Denmark. If someone drops a bottle someone else is likely to pick it up and get the refund. There are people actively looking for them. Eg. the deposit for a large plastic bottle is about 50 cents.
The simple answer is yes, all we have to do is use (Un Fossilised) Algea, to make Carbon Negative Bio Fuel, that permanently sequesters 10 pounds of CO2 for every gallon!. We can use Algea Oil for anything Fossilised Algea ( petroleum) can be used for, but cos Algea Oil is not fossilised it is capapable of producing Compostable products, while capturing Carbon! A country wide roll out of Photo Bio Reactors( PBR) could be done in 5-10 years, would be localised so creating millions of local Green jobs and bringing £millions to local/regional economies!. Also Algea is fed waste water, Landfil runoff, industrial gasses etc, so serves the purpose of cleaning those waste streams!.
Great videos, keep them coming.
I am all for the sustainability push in industry but I think an important factor we should address when trying to determine the right solution is cost.
For ethylene glycol (an industry which I research and forecast for a living), my numbers estimate that bio-based production capacity is just 250,000 tonnes/year. Conversely, your fossil fuel-based production capacity accounts for 40,500,000 tonnes/year. Also, a growing slice of that production capacity uses coal as a feedstock.
Why? Bio is an expensive route, I calculate that you need a crude oil price of at least $65 and even nearer to $80 per barrel for it to be competitive. Subsequently the "plant bottle" movement seems to have drifted into the background. And the focus has shifted more to recycling.
Also, with any packaging a life-cycle analysis gives a true assessment. Plastic gets a bad rep but I've seen data that would make anyone cringe when alternatives are proposed. Plastic waste is a major problem and I'd recommend anyone to check out the Alliance to End Plastic Waste group's website, who are trying to tackle this.
Maybe you can look at future videos on plastic recycling (mechanical and chemical) as well as life cycle analysis of packaging materials: plastic vs. glass vs. card, etc.
What we need to do is to REPLACE tree derived biomass with bamboo derived products - e.g. paper, pellet etc :D Trucks? In terms of electrification, first can be switched to carbon neutral hydrocarbons manufactured from sequestered CO2 using nuclear reactors. Air conditioning? Mostly coupled with conditions ideal for photovoltaics , which in that case don't need to be connected to grid, so battery and instability problems goes away. Petrochemicals .... well... we certainly can divert oil from non-essential stuff to tires until replacement is found. Though celulose fibre is pound-per-pound tougher than carbon fibre (!) therefore, remind ourselves about so called pykrete and perhaps biodegradable, celulose tires are the future ? ;)
I guess the only way out is to either reduce our population greatly, or become multiplanitary, even with novel new technological approaches our planet cannot support the size of population we currently have.
It currently does?
@@zakuro8532 not sustainably
How long does it take to produce 3,64 Liter of plastic waste versus how long does it take to burn 3,64 Liter in a car?
(chosen 3,64L since this is typical for Germany for a 100km drive in 2020 - source wikipedia)
I'd guess there's a difference by a factor of at least 10 for home waste like diverse food packaging. If I'm right at that then the problem with plastic there is much more with the spill, accumulation in the seas and the soil and subsequent degradation to toxic micro-plastic . There are non-biodegradable (or hardly bio-degradable bio-plastics) and unfortunately those are the most desirable ones for us. Like the interesting replacement bio-plastic for PET that was mentioned in the video. Note that there is also the reverse: Highly biodegradable petrochemical plastics. Biosourcedness ⟂ degradability. If biodegradable petrochemicals would be composted and the produced methane recycled then the "petro-carbon" goes into the surface soil instead of the air.
For the better or the worse IDK.
Professor Guy McPherson...Guy McPherson.com
Aerosol Masking Effect..
I don't know if he's correct but he's certainly convinced that any reduction in industrial activity will lead to severe and abrupt temp. rise...do you have an opinion on his thinking?
Itaconix definitely worth buying some shares. Only valued at £7.5million and company is growing exponentially.
Going to get the app now! Thanks!
And here I thought you would have a heavy emphasis on Pyrolysis oil to create a type of synthetic crude, which would then be refined into various petrochemical alternatives.
How big of a dent in petrochemical CO₂ emissions would result from the decarbonization of ammonia and methanol? On paper, one could make methanol by reacting green hydrogen with CO₂. Subsequently, that methanol can go through the methanol-to-olefins process to yield products such as ethene, propene and butene. I've even heard of a methanol-to-aromatics process.
Arable land and food crops are best used for eating. And forests for foresting. If you're making fuel and plastics out of food, you have to take into account the amount of fossil fuel you use to plough, fertilise, pesticide, harvest, transport and process. There's a massive loss in efficiency. It's not worth the squeeze.
I'm surprised you didn't mention algal biofuels. Now _this_ could be the way of the future. All you need is seawater and sunlight, and it can approach almost 100% carbon neutral. You don't even need land. You could setup ocean-floating algal farms, or use deserts near the sea.
Algae is extremely prolific, and can be squeezed for just as much and even more oil than typical crop plants. That oil, once refined, can be burnt directly as diesel, or further refined to lighter/heavier distillates. It can be used in almost _any_ oil application. Plastics, lubrication, food.
But it doesn't end there. The "juice", the mostly water-soluble fraction contains _a lot_ of useful nutrients. Proteins, sugars, and essential minerals. You could even engineer certain strains of algae to produce medicines and other "designer" molecules.
After you've squeezed out all the juice, you could use the dried, solid remainder as crop fertiliser, or livestock feed. You could maybe even grind it into a nutritious flour replacement for Human consumption.
But you can extract even more before that. You can ferment the mostly solid remainders with yeast to produce ethanol. There's still a lot of sugars left. Put the CO2 back into the growth phase. Then compost the remainders with bacteria to produce methane gas.
The absolute tailings will have many useful elements. Probably more concentration of metals than we're digging up out of the dirt currently.
Well, that's just my idea of a "mostly" closed-loop system to vastly reduce our reliance on fossil fuels, and almost eliminate our carbon footprint, anyways. And it's not exactly science fiction. We could do it now with the technology in our back shed.
But let's be real. It's not going to happen while there are still vested interests in oil.
I'm glad you added the perspective at the end!
We must begin to look at every ecosystem holistically and really understand EVERY impact of letting capitalism loose on the environment....
Agree Matt angiono:Rather change capitalism and give ourselves and the living planet a helping hand. Acting in a considered way without undue influence and coprporate/oloigarchical pressures. Deliberative Democracy would be a great help in this.
@@brianwheeldon4643 I feel like ANY democracy would be pretty nice for Americans right now lol....
It would be nice for everyone in fact
As always, brilliant. I downloaded the app for my phone and it works perfectly. A but of a problem is my tablet which I feel is a better format for your content. I use a Fire tablet but unfortunately there's not a version for that store and Amazon has sold a gazillion of their tablets. I also sideloaded the Google play store onto it but for some reason the 'JHAT' app doesn't load.
On the subject of PLA I know it from 3D printing where it makes up the bulk of the 3D printing feedstock market. PLA is amazing stuff and I've designed many functional prints from hamburger presses to an insulin dose alignment tool for my wife. It's a robust if slightly brittle plastic but if a print breaks then I just redesign and print a new one. 3D printing is cheap but slow, however it's not as slow as ordering something and waiting for it to be delivered.
We must remember something . More often than not Polymers/plastics made from bio source or biomass is still chemically identical/equivalent to plastics made from petrochemicals and hence non bio-degradable. So, unless it's absolutely required for a particular application, we should focus and promote the companies which are making or struggling to make bio degradable plastic alternatives made from bio source.
Great video as usual thx
I’ve certainly witnessed the pine forests of North Carolina, which seem to go from seedling to harvest in less than 30 years. I only recently learned that these harvested trees were largely going to pellet mills, to feed electricity production in Europe. I’m not a resident of NC, but have been travelling there for Spring Cycling since 1990 (this year excepted, for the obvious reasons).
This has provided me with a kind of “stop action” movie of land use there. In addition to golf courses, a lot of land is being converted the Solar Farms. . . the one situated at Derby, NC, not far from Pinehurst, being the largest I’ve ever seen. Which gives me hope.
It's said that all plants without exception take 100% of their carbon from the air and none from the soil.
I wonder how thoroughly this has been tested? I kind of doubt the "without exception" part.
This means plants only ever add to the amount of humic soil on earth.
I wonder if this is (was) in an equilibrium with microorganisms degrading it or if it is (was) in an equilibrium with getting buried away to anaerobic places through geological processes.
Or something else ...
One alternative to expanded polystyrene is mycelium (or if you're me mushroom packaging). The more they look in to mycelium the more possible uses they are finding, it's very interesting stuff.
By its very nature it doesn't require valuable farm land or light and so could be the answer to what will survive and grow in a Student Flat. :)
What about video covering methods for not consuming? The nappies example being a case in point. We spend 2-3 years telling our children to piss themselves and then six months teaching them not to again. That didn't use to be the case before we were convinced to buy nappies. Children were taught from birth to respond to cues from their mother about when to go (elimination communication I think it's called). A far more dignified solution. What about showing that there people in the world - like me - who don't use 100 products, from shampoo to shower gels, to shaving cream, that are completely not required to remain clean (I use soap to wash my hands of course). Most things on the list don't need a technological solution, they just need to end. They only exist because people make profit from them. They're sold to us as essential.
This is why those in charge of the sheep-people, are worried about the day the world runs out of crude oil. New plastics will become almost impossible to get when that day happens.. As in impossible, I am talking about more costly..
First big problem is that most of these new plastics are made from food! And people need to eat. For as we reduce the Co2 production, so too will our food production be reduced. And these people want to turn food into plastic. However those that seek to use current trash into plastics, have my gratitude.
Last problem is that too many people think that if it is natural it is OKAY. WONG --> Many poisons, and toxins are made by nature. This distinction needs to be made!
Cyrene sounds good to me, because it utilize LGO which exist in all plants cell walls, ....yes, the keyword is plants, which means that grass is also part of it, therefore we can use bamboos which is also categorized as grass, ...growing at 6 mm per minutes is the fastest growing plant in the world, by utilizing bamboos to absorb C02 as it grows and use the LGO in it to replace petrochemicals, the plants become so useful to combat global warming, it grows so quickly therefore it has ability to fill the demand of the LGO economically, and even better as it multiplies by growing from the root, which means less problem to make a bamboo forest
Thanks for this nice overview. I think there's room for a lot of more detailed follow up, however. There are some Biobased companies working on the land use problem as well. E.g. Miscanthus grass (fast growing, high in cellulose) on barren lands. Or mechanised seaweed farms out in sea (takes fertilizer pollution and co2 from the water). Then there's fermentation with agriculture rest streams as feed stock. The big challenge is scaling up. And we need to change the mindset that these alternatives are only viable if they are cost competitive with fossil sources. Point is: we need to #KeepItInTheGround and simply move on to new solutions. Maybe that means some consumer goods will become more expensive. So be it.
The IPCC Report on Air Conditioning is inexcusably miss leading. The assumptions of the report (listed in the footnotes but not highlighted) assume the very worst case scenario: every household and every business will have air conditioning. But they omit reality: affordability. This scenario can only be true if every family and business is given an AC unit for free.
While their scenario is worst case, their solution is unreasonable best case. They propose replacing every AC unit (all 13B) with today’s most efficient unit. If cost were again not considered and unlimited production of that efficient unit was possible and if that AC unit were installable in every location ....
Reports like this one are the reason why global warming is still questioned by too many. The report is true while not being either reasonable or accurate.
Good video. Biggest problem with alternatives is if they cost slightly more, industry will not use it unless forced to.
Also, it really bugs me that (at least in US), my garbage company has recycling but it's a hodge podge of which products can be recycled and makes no use of the "circling arrow" numbers. SO what was the purpose of the numbers / we need to do whatever changes are needed so they can be used. My wife is always telling me that one package does not go in recycling while another similar looking one does (and I went to the garbage companies website and read what they have on the subject).
This is wonderful information. Thank you for creating this content!
Our food is grown using petrochemicals.
Google
Green revolution
The Green revolution improved farm productivity x 3.
When we experience demand for oil exceeding supply all oil products will become very expensive.
A reversal of the Green revolution will result in a decrease in farm productivity. Food will be expensive and in short supply.
can you talk on how japan expects to go 'hydrogen economy' if H production is ultimately inefficient. They say they'll use renewables, but ah, why funnel renewables into an inefficient process, instead of using renewables directly. are they suppressing H tech?
Could this "new" engineering and industrial effort/mind-set become the basis of sustainable environments on the Moon and Mars? Very early on in our colonization efforts over the next couple of decades, we must learn to repeatedly reuse all the materials we loft from earth, rather than dump them into Lunar or Martian landfills. Further, the advent of space habitats will be an even more important driver, since they are entirely artificial and must be self contained..
Ramp up. Get a thousant petro users to convert to green. Then 10, 100 and a thousand thousand ore one million. See what happens. That way you'll have a little bit of real demographic knowledge to mix in with your policy making.
Thanks for another great video! And respect for pronouncing all those chemical names so well.
I'm more of a physics guy, so this petrochemical stuff seems like magic to me. Figuring out appropriate land management techniques for the production of the feed stock will be critical, of course. But I wonder if at least some of the feed stocks could eventually be grown from genetically engineered bacteria in "bioreactors" or something similar. There's a push to make agriculture more scientific and managed with things like vertical farming, so maybe the same could be done for petrochemicals.
I'm a fan. Thank you for doing this.
2 days ago I listened to a radio call-in program on climate change. It seemed to me that the "experts" on the program (which included a local weatherman) were concerned to blunt all extremes in order to give listeners reasons for hope. Am I mistaken in thinking that serious efforts ought to have started 30 years ago?
Even the replacements for petrochemicals are (are they not) too little too late.
By the time my question was clear to me, the program was nearly over.
So I would like to ask you: are there reasons in the science that warrant optimism?
I always enjoy your videos and find them very informative. I often share them on a Facebook group I manage " Help the environment ", I hope you don't mind. Keep up the good work.
I think that ppl should look at the small turbine electric generators like WRIGHTSPEED is doing
Very interesting video. I currently carry out research in Kraft lignin depolymerization at a university in Japan.
I think a lot of the potential for lignin will come when the demand for gasoline and diesel from the petrochemical industry drops, thus, making the co-production of aromatics by that route no longer as-profitable.
There are plenty things at least some of us can survive without - but do we want to ?
And can we all do so ? It seems that our root problem is that there are just to many people on the planet for us all to be able to have a comfy modern lifestyle - those of us who can afford it insist on having it and those who cant strive to become able to. Eg. I bet the US would have a very sustainable environmental impact if all USAmericans decided to live an Amish lifestyle. Given how tiny a minority of the US population are Amish it doesn't seem like many of them want to do so. I am not entirely sure there is enough arable land in all parts of the US to feed the US population using Amish style farming.
Sure, some things like microplastics added to shampoo and cosmetics I would classify as decadent luxary but disposable medical equipment that is thrown away/burned after use rather than sterilized an reused or just single use plasic gloves and plastic aprons used when taking care of our old loved ones in nursing homes and at home (doing this rather than using the same cover/uniform when helping multiple people can reduce infections massively) ? People would DIE from infections if we did that.
If we can find ways to produce good enough plastics without using oil at a competetive cost then its fine, but in that case wouldnt the change happen by istelf just being driven by the desire for profit ?
And are we really sure that the alternatives to petrochemistry really have a smaller ecological footprint ?