Monday, December 3, 2012

Gas them all, we say!

The lethargy to move to alternative fuel seems almost insane...

In Japan, while Honda rolled out its first hydrogen powered car, another Japanese company, Genepax, has gone one step ahead in making a prototype which runs on water by extracting the hydrogen for fuelling the engine. This should be seen in the background that hell-raisers (economists, if we may) now claim that the price of oil could even touch $200 per barrel in months to come. And though it might be too early to prefigure the shape of things, one thing is for sure, that the short journey to a new world where the need to plead and live with a prayer for oil price to come down, has already begun.

Yet, the real question is whether the energy problem is really so grave or is it simply a result of inertia of developing countries to strive for alternatives. And especially so in developing economies like, say, India. A report by the Global Environment Facility of the UNDP on India’s Coal Bed Methane (CBM) extraction potential states, “It is estimated that in India, the largest coal producer in the world, there are around 20,000 sq km of area where CBM capture could be carried out and that the country’s recoverable reserves of methane are 800 billion cubic metres, with a gas production potential of 105 million cubic metres a day over 20 years.” Compare this with Saudi Arabia’s daily production of oil which stands at 9.5 million barrel per day.

The reality is that many underdeveloped and developing nations have similar sources of alternative energy; yet, fail to see the potential. If most of the major metropolitan cities turn to CNG as the standard fuel for all public transport systems and private vehicles, it would reduce the oil demand significantly.


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri

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