Science AMA Series: I am Justin Billing, a scientist at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) where I research the production of biofuels. Our recent work – the conversion of human waste to biofuels – has recently garnered a lot of attention – and I’m here to talk about it. AMA!

See the source article by following the link below:

Hi Reddit! I’m here to talk about something that may sound a bit gross … but it is research that can help diversify our energy portfolio while diverting a significant societal waste stream to a useful purpose. We’re talking about a new approach to turn ordinary human sewage to biofuel. The technology – hydrothermal liquefaction – mimics the geological conditions the Earth uses to create crude oil with high pressure and temperature to achieve in minutes something that takes Mother Nature millions of years. The resulting material is similar to petroleum pumped out of the ground. It can then be refined using conventional petroleum refining operations.

Read more at https://goo.gl/8bJjzv and watch our short video at https://youtu.be/ER4C6EapZQ4.

I will be back here at 11 am PST (2 pm EST) to answer your questions.

">Science AMA Series: I am Justin Billing, a scientist at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) where I research the production of biofuels. Our recent work – the conversion of human waste to biofuels – has recently garnered a lot of attention – and I’m here to talk about it. AMA!