On Oct 12, 1:53*am, "Buerste" wrote:
I seem to remember a machine that actually "cut" motor oil into shorter HC
chains to test motor oil longevity. *Would it be possible to mechanically
crack HCs into fuel on a large scale? *How about pressing HCs through
rollers so precise that they would actually crush molecules to do the job?
The trouble I see would be that people would start disappearing into fuel
tanks, chubby people would be the first to go.

see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mechanochemistry
Also google "mechanochemical + fuels", etc. I think that the field is
mostly R&D at present.