Pyrolysis oil are affected by temperature, reaction time, algae species, algae concentration, reaction atmosphere, and catalysts, in subcritical water reaction conditions. Bio-oil typically requires significant additional treatment to render it suitable as a refinery feedstock to replace crude oil derived from petroleum, coal-oil, or coal-tar. Tar is a black mixture of hydrocarbons and free carbon obtained from a wide variety of organic materials through destructive distillation. Tar can be produced from coal, wood, petroleum, or peat. Wood-tar creosote is a colourless to yellowish greasy liquid with a smoky odor, produces a sooty flame when burned, and has a burned taste. It is
Tar wood causes tar and pitch to drip away from the wood and leave behind charcoal. Birch bark is used to make particularly fine tar, known as "Russian oil", suitable for leather protection. The by-products of wood tar are turpentine and charcoal. When deciduous tree woods are subjected to destructive distillation, the products are methanol (wood alcohol) and charcoal. Tar kilns (, , , ) are dry distillation ovens, historically used in Scandinavia for producing tar from wood. They were built close to the forest, from limestone or from more primitive holes in the ground. The bottom is sloped into an