May 2008
Monthly Archive
Understanding Geo-engineering
Posted by Energy Business Reports on 27 May 2008 | Tagged as: Industry News
Our planet is facing a serious challenge in global warming. And many or the worlds’ top scientists believe that global catastrophe can be prevented through the use of “geoengineering” technologies. The primary greenhouse gas is CO2, which is estimated to contribute to over two-thirds of climate change. The primary source of CO2 is the burning of fossil fuels, specifically gas, oil, and coal.
The natural production and absorption of carbon dioxide (CO2) is achieved through the earth’s biosphere and oceans. However, mankind has altered the natural carbon cycle by burning coal, oil, natural gas, and wood and each of these activities has increased in scale and distribution. Carbon dioxide was the first greenhouse gas demonstrated to be increasing in atmospheric concentration.
In the last 10 years, scientists have suggested some radical theories to reduce CO2 in our atmosphere. These projects, known as "geoengineering," consist of several concepts including massive reforestation efforts that would absorb the excess and harmful gas from the atmosphere, or successfully lofting hundreds of wide mirrors into the earth’s orbit to reduce the amount of sunlight reaching the surface.
carbon dioxide carbon dioxide emissions carbon market CO2 CO2 emission ghg emissions green trading markets greenhouse emissions greenhouse gas Greenhouse Gas Abatement Program greenhouse gas emission greenhouse gas emissions greenhouse gas emissions. greenhouse gases greenhouse gassesFuel Ethanol and Biodiesel in India
Posted by Energy Business Reports on 23 May 2008 | Tagged as: Industry News
Biofuel is any fuel that is derived from biomass - recently living organisms or their metabolic byproducts, such as manure from cows. It is a renewable energy source, unlike other natural resources such as petroleum, coal, and nuclear fuels.
Read more about Cellulose Ethanol Market Potential 2008
Ethanol is manufactured from microbial conversion of biomass materials through fermentation. Ethanol contains 35% oxygen. The production process consists of conversion of biomass to fermentable sugars, fermentation of sugars to ethanol, and the separation and purification of the ethanol. Fermentation initially produces ethanol containing a substantial amount of water. Distillation removes the majority of water to yield about 95% purity ethanol, the balance being water. This mixture is called hydrous ethanol. If the remaining water is removed in a further process, the ethanol is called anhydrous ethanol and is suitable for blending into gasoline. Ethanol is “denatured” prior to leaving the plant to make it unfit for human consumption by addition of a small amount of products such as gasoline.
Biodiesel fuels are oxygenated organic compounds - methyl or ethyl esters - derived from a variety of renewable sources such as vegetable oil, animal fat, and cooking oil. The oxygen contained in biodiesel makes it unstable and requires stabilization to avoid storage problems. Rapeseed methyl ester (RME) diesel, derived from rapeseed oil, is the most common biodiesel fuel available in Europe. In the United States, biodiesel from soybean oil, called soy methyl ester diesel, is the most common biodiesel. Collectively, these fuels are referred to as fatty acid methyl esters (FAME).
India produces two types of biofuels, fuel ethanol and biodiesel.
The Government of India has developed an ambitious National Biodiesel Mission to meet 20% of the country’s diesel requirements by 2011-2012. Since the demand for edible vegetable oil exceeds supply, the Government decided to use non-edible oil from Jatropha Curcas oilseeds as biodiesel feedstock. Extensive research has shown that Jatropha Curcas offers the following advantages: it requires low water and fertilizer for cultivation, not browsed by cattle or sheep, pest resistant, easy propagation, high seed yield and ability to produce high protein manure.
To find out more about India’s growing biofuel industry, purchase Real Publishing’s research report Biofuel Industry in India.
Wind Power: Rising Costs are Unlikely to Derail New Build Plans
Posted by Energy Business Reports on 21 May 2008 | Tagged as: Industry News
Utilities are increasingly having to turn to third-party financing to fund wind farm projects.
The global wind energy industry is facing challenges including rising raw materials costs, supply chain problems and skills shortages, due mainly to booming demand. With renewable valuations at an all time high, industry experts predict strong growth will continue on the back of record sustainable energy investments driven by technology maturity, policy incentives and heightened investor appetite.The worldwide success of wind energy and its tremendous growth have put unprecedented pressure on the manufacturers and capital costs of wind turbines and their components. Indeed, the annual market for wind energy installed capacity increased at a rate of 32% in 2006, with over 15,000MW of new capacity installed worldwide. The market predicts that these severe supply constraints are unlikely to abate much before 2012.
The recent rise in installed wind capital costs has been fuelled by component and general raw materials shortages and price increases, the rapid increase in turbine sizes, the decline of leading currencies, higher than expected maintenance costs, and possible increased profit-taking by suppliers. However, this is only moderately affecting wind's competitiveness, as rising steel, copper and carbon prices are also making coal, nuclear, and other electric power plants more expensive to build. Today, most turbine and components manufacturers have taken steps to respond to the boom in demand by substantially expanding their production capacity.
Utilities companies are, therefore, increasingly having to turn to third-party financing to fund wind farm projects as their balance sheets are unable to absorb the increased costs. As a result, there is speculation that this and the supply squeeze will jeopardize wind energy growth and the likelihood of achieving renewable energy targets.
Despite the range of challenges facing the wind energy industry, Energy Business Reports is of the view that growth is likely to remain strong on the back of record investments, which suggest that the existing technology is ready for scale-up and will become a larger part of the energy mix (onshore wind is now an established commodity, while offshore wind continues to be more difficult to finance). The wind energy industry is very much driven by policy, which today includes a burgeoning array of tariff and fiscal support initiatives (such as the January 2008 European proposal for a directive on the promotion of the use of energy from renewable sources) that together create a stable global environment for continued sector growth and investor appetite. Indeed, 2007 saw installed wind capacity surge by 31% compared to 2006, a trend that is likely to continue.
Related Research
Read more about Global Wind Power Market Potential
wind Wind based energy wind energy wind farm wind generated electricity wind turbine wind turbines windmillsBiofuels as Alternative Sources of Energy
Posted by Energy Business Reports on 04 May 2008 | Tagged as: Industry News
Biofuels are produced by converting organic matter into fuel for powering our society. These biofuels are an alternative energy source to the fossil fuels that we currently depend upon. The biofuels umbrella includes under its aegis ethanol and derivatives of plants such as sugar cane, as well aS vegetable and corn oils. However, not all ethanol products are designed to be used as a kind of gasoline. The International Energy Agency (IEA) tells us that ethanol could comprise up to 10 percent of the world's usable gasoline by 2025, and up to 30 percent by 2050. Today, the percentage figure is two percent.
However, we have a long way to go to refine and make economic and practical these biofuels that we are researching. A study by Oregon State University proves this. We have yet to develop biofuels that are as energy efficient as gasoline made from petroleum. Energy efficiency is the measure of how much usable energy for our needed purposes is derived from a certain amount of input energy. (Nothing that mankind has ever used has derived more energy from output than from what the needed input was. What has always been important is the conversion—the end-product energy is what is useful for our needs, while the input energy is just the effort it takes to produce the end-product.) The OSU study found corn-derived ethanol to be only 20% energy efficient (gasoline made from petroleum is 75% energy efficient). Biodiesel fuel was recorded at 69% energy efficiency. However, the study did turn up one positive: cellulose-derived ethanol was charted at 85% efficiency, which is even higher than that of the fantastically efficient nuclear energy.
Recently, oil futures have been down on the New York Stock Exchange, as analysts from several different countries are predicting a surge in biofuel availability which would offset the value of oil, dropping crude oil prices on the international market to $40 per barrel or thereabouts. The Chicago Stock Exchange has a grain futures market which is starting to “steal” investment activity away from the oil futures in NY, as investors are definitely expecting better profitability to start coming from biofuels. Indeed, it is predicted by a consensus of analysts that biofuels shall be supplying seven percent of the entire world's transportation fuels by the year 2030. One certain energy markets analyst has said, growth in demand for diesel and gasoline may slow down dramatically, if the government subsidizes firms distributing biofuels and further pushes to promote the use of eco-friendly fuel.
There are several nations which are seriously involved in the development of biofuels.
There is Brazil, which happens to be the world's biggest producer of ethanols derived from sugars. It produces approximately three and a half billion gallons of ethanol per year.
The United States, while being the world's greatest oil-guzzler, is already the second largest producer of biofuels behind Brazil.
The European Union's biodiesel production capacity is now in excess of four million (British) tonnes. 80 percent of the EU's biodiesel fuels are derived from rapeseed oil; soybean oil and a marginal quantity of palm oil comprise the other 20 percent.