@bonifartius @black6_ Should be possible to synthesize oil from non-living base components. How you would make sure the atoms themselves never existing as part of life I dunno, but as long as you get it from a non-organic source it should be a fairly safe bet.

@freemo @black6_ well, mineral oil directly was something living some time back.. ;)

maybe we need to capture an asteroid for this :P

@bonifartius

Yea obviously for the idea to work mineral oil wouldnt work. Interesting mineral oil is mostly safe to eat but your body cant absorb it so its just a laxative. That said chemically you should be able to synthesize proper fat from just water and air.

@black6_

@freemo @black6_ guess it won't kill you, but some of the organic compounds & heavy metals in there probably aren't really healthy as well :P

of course you can, that's what plants do! :D

@bonifartius

mineral oils is a distillate process. While I am sure it needs some additional cleaning for the stuff that is fit for humans, it shouldnt have any sort of heavy metals in it. Mercury is the only heavy metal that distills at any reasonable temperature but if that was present it would wind upin a different fraction than the mineral oil.

But yea, regardless im sure there is some additional cleaning and/or processing for the mineral oil intended to be used for humans.

@black6_

@freemo @black6_ ah, sure the distilled stuff for medicinal use and the like is probably pretty clean! )

@bonifartius

All mineral oil is distilled, some (I dont know) may go through extra levels of cleaning. I do know that some is meant for human consumption, which should be fairly pure. What I dont know is how much cleaning the stuff for human consumption goes through compared to the normal distillate.

But yea all mineral oil is a fractional distillate from the same process that produces gasoline (just a higher temperature fraction than gas)

@black6_

@freemo @black6_ i think some confusion was because of a false friend, i thought about petroleum/crude oil because it's "Mineralöl" in german!

@bonifartius

Ahh yes, crude and mineral are different in english. Mineral oil is similar to crude in thickness, but it is purified, so it is clear, and has all the lower fractional volatile stuff removed as well. Its usually used as a laxative, topically, or even a lubricant. It has no nutritional value though.

@black6_

@freemo @black6_ i looked it up, mineral oil is "Weissöl" in german :)

@bonifartius

And "öl" in Swedish means "beer". 😉

@freemo @black6_