Archive for the ‘Energy’ Category

Gasoline From Grass

Tuesday, September 8th, 2009

Biofuel Grassoline – Gasoline From Grass
Gioietta Kuo
Augusr 8 2009
Senior Fellow, American Center for International Policy Studies  amcips.org

It present 25% of world energy is  consumed by transport  using mostly oil.  As oil is on the wane, new echnologies are appearing both in the kind of motor car we drive and the fuel we use.

It is true to say that most technologies  are  market driven, which in turn is determined by demand.  However, there are pitfalls in rushing headlong into  production with a  certain technology without some cool headed  long term analysis of the viability and  basic contradictions that might exist in the route  taken by the market.    For example the market may change or new technology may become available,  so that the production just initiated  becomes short lived  with the result that the capital put into production  cannot be recovered.

A good example of just this phenomenon is (more…)

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Agriculture with sea water

Tuesday, September 8th, 2009

Agriculture with sea water
Gioietta Kuo  May 11 2009
Senior Fellow,  American Center for International Policy Studies amcips.org

It is commonly believed that salt is bad for agriculture.  But people living on the shores of India have had a saline based agricultural  system for hundreds of years    Intensive research is under way by scientists at NASA in the USA  on algae and bacteria, the two most important biofuel technologies of the twenty first century.    As a replacement for oil, algae is (more…)

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THE IMPORTANCE OF NUCLEAR ENERGY

Wednesday, February 18th, 2009

by Gioietta Kuo

(Dr. Kuo is a Senior Research Fellow for the American Center for International Studies)

INTRODUCTION

About 2 years ago, the consensus of world’s eminent climatologists  like Sir David King and Dr James Hansen  were unified in their opinion that the world could survive eventually 450 ppm – parts per million, of CO2 (then at 385 ppm) in the atmosphere.  Even so, according to them, there is no time to lose, the world’s governments should adopt a radically different energy policy to eradicate fossil fuel use.    If we  continue business as usual in the next ten 10 years then the planet will reach a point of no return.

Since then, 2 years have passed, there has been no drastic reduction in CO2 emission in the world and CO2 concentration has increased by 2 ppm per year.  In the meantime, more and more signs of global warming, such as the sharp rise in arctic temperature and Greenland ice melt, together with an improved study of data of the earth’s
climate history have the climatologists alarmed.    Led (more…)

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$200 Oil – reprint of article in China Daily

Tuesday, June 17th, 2008

By Gioietta Kuo (China Daily)
Updated: 2008-06-10 08:08

 

As the price of oil exceeds $135 a barrel, Goldman Sachs, the New York investment bank, predicts that the oil price will reach $200 a barrel in the next year.

Mamdouh Salameh, advisor to the World Bank and UN Industrial Development Organization, said that if not for the Iraq War, the oil price would be $40 a barrel today. It is the United States’ and Britain’s invasion that led to the current oil crisis.

Iraq apart, although speculation must play a part, there are two fundamental reasons why the world is in a severe oil crisis.

First, there are many signs that oil is (more…)

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Cuba and Haiti: The Alternative Fuel Mixture

Monday, May 12th, 2008

There is now a movement away from alternative fuels, mainly due to the shortage and high price of food products, such as corn, that is also used to make ethanol. Other arguments against ethanol are that it may be costlier to make than the current cost to refine crude oil. The Morning News,(by Aoife White, The Associated Press) May 6, 2008 edition, carried an article titled “Economist Pushes For Biofuel Cuts” stating that “The U.S. and European Union should reconsider a shift to biofuel that has helped increase food prices world-wide by turning agricultural land over to energy crops, American economist Jeffrey Sachs said Monday.” There are also those who say the shortage of oil is due in part, to the lack of refineries, and many in the United States do not want to have refineries located near their cities or finance the upfront investment for construction which is very expensive.

Another article regarding the use of agricultural land was published in The Morning News by Seth Borenstein of The Associated Press, May 11, 2008, titled “Experts: Better Soil Needed.” The article discussed the new plant seeds which were formulated to produce healthier crops, are now having difficulty producing in degraded (more…)

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Development In High Growth Corridors

Friday, January 18th, 2008

The Missing Ingredients For Sustainable Development  In High Growth Corridors

Over the last century there has been considerable interest in protecting the environment and during the last several decades in particular, there has been some progress in the creation of the general interest towards organic gardening, solar energy, wind energy, so called “green products” that are totally recyclable and the broad category of “sustainable development”.  (more…)

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WHERE IS THE MONEY?

Thursday, November 2nd, 2006

Patrick Moore sparked a long overdue debate on nuclear energy ­ Washington Post, 4/17/06. The sad reality is, there are NO options open to us except nuclear energy.

Renewables like wind and solar energy are prohibitively expensive in capital cost, about $4700 ­ 7500/Kilowatt. Since wind does not blow nor the sun shine all the time, there has to be a standby source of power which fills in the gap when the wind or sun is down. The only candidate is nuclear power. The capital cost of nuclear reactors is a factor of 3 lower ­ around $2200/Kilowatt. To replace fossil fuel with nuclear reactors would cost around $ 1/2 trillion. Nuclear technology is much improved in last 50 years. A nuclear reactor can in principle be built in 5 years. .

Scientists like Jim Hansen of NASA say we must start (more…)

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