The future of energy security in hydrogen and renewable energy sources

Publication Date:31-October-04
Source: Asia Intelligence Wire
The era of oil and natural gas is "slowly coming to an end", thanks to the environmental hazards created by way of emission of greenhouse gases (GHGs), depletion of reserves and increasing political risks, the Additional Secretary in the Union Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, M.S. Srinivasan, said here today.

The future of energy security would lie in hydrogen and renewable energy sources, including biofuel.

Addressing the inaugural session of the "Oil and Gas Meet - Focus on Latest Environmental Trends", last conference of the Energy Summit 2004 organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), Mr. Srinivasan said spending of thousands of crores in refineries to improve the quality of fuel and reduce sulphur and other pollutants, amounted to "tinkering" with the environmental hazard, which lay in the amounts of heat-trapping greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide emitted by hydrocarbons.

Given the increase in global warming in the last century, equivalent to the rise in the temperature in the previous three millennia, and the fact that 15 out of the 16 warmest years recorded since 1860 had been seen since 1980, the limitations of oil and gas were obvious.

The "ubiquitous" nature of the use of oil and gas in transportation made environmental discipline more and more difficult.

Also, volatility in the prices of oil and gas was posing a "political risk" to governments everywhere because of consumer resistance.

Just as the first wave of industrialisation was fuelled by steam and the second wave by oil and gas, the third wave, characterised by the knowledge economy, would be fuelled by renewable energy sources and hydrogen.

India could not lag behind in researching and investing in the fuels of the future. The biggest problem posed by hydrogen was safe storage but even this was being overcome. The United States already had more than one thousand kilometre-long hydrogen pipelines. The world was also exploring the potential of the nano technology of carbon and Buckminster Fullerene pioneered by Prof. Harry Croto, which could meet the demands of the third energy wave, he added.

Leena Mehendale, Executive Director, Petroleum Conservation Research Association (PCRA), suggested privatisation of "branch lines" of oil and gas pipelines to find resources for distribution to consumers such as industrial clusters. She urged industry to support research and education of households on turning kitchen waste into fertilizers or fuel with appropriate digesters, so that the cost of transportation to landfills and use of oil in that process could be eliminated.

Dr. Mehendale said farmers were already taking to alternatives such as jatropa biofuel, irrespective of whether industry was ready for it. At Oddanthurai in Tamil Nadu women were generating power using wood gasifiers, and despite the problem of smoke, it was a comparably clean operation. The PCRA had received suggestions on recycling fumes emitted during unloading of oil in retail outlets, she said.