Can petroleum be produced in the the lab ?why or why not?
Answers
No it cannot.
Crude oil is produced over a period of several million years, with temperatures of around 120 deg Celsius and pressures of 300 - 1000 bars.
Crude oil is produced in laboratories, by heating rock core samples at higher temperatures than normal, to compensate for change in pressures. This amount of crude produced though, is very little in quantity and can only be used for analytical purposes.
Commercial amounts of crude oil cannot be produced in laboratories for various factors, most of all, costs. The costs required to maintain a temperature of approximately 390 deg Celsius will be enormous and ineffective, when compared to conventional production of crude oil.
Our technological and commercial limitations will probably prevent production of crude oil from labs in commercial amounts for quite a long period of time.