Biotechnology for development of sustainable clean technology - Strategies:
Many developed countries started using biotechnology as a means of achieving clean or cleaner industrial products and processes. It compares biotechnological processes with competing means of securing similar goals.
Meaning of Clean technology - All stages of the life cycle of a product or process may adversely affect the environment by using up limited resources of materials and energy or by creating waste. Any substitution or change that reduces consumption of materials and energy and production of waste – including, for example, recycling of materials and energy – may be regarded as more environmentally friendly or ‘‘clean’’. Clean technology may also be equated with reduced risk.
Life Cycle Assessment is one way of comparing the relative cleanliness of a product or process.
Cleaner processes and products mean processes and products that consume less energy and material resources, generate less pollution or waste, or use renewable resources rather than petroleum or coal-based feedstock as feed. There are many reasons why an operator would switch to a cleaner process or product. Some of the more important factors most often mentioned are:
(a) Availability of raw materials;
(b) Cost factors;
(c) Market demands;
(d) Safety and health considerations;
(e) Environmental considerations;
(f) Product liability;
(g) Public image.
Thus, it is the duty of developed countries to appreciate the potential role of biotechnology in clean industrial processes and sets the stage for viewing clean processes in the context of industrial sustainability. The extents to which biotechnological thinking and practices are being introduced into industrial sectors, which have serious environmental impacts, are to be enhanced. The economic competitiveness of biotechnology for clean products and processes in these sectors are the major concerns, which Government / authorities required to be take a note and policy implementation should be in tune with sustainable development.
Scientific and technological innovations across the range of biotechnologies and the opportunities for their adoption, as well as R&D priorities are to be spelt out.
The following few points are to be kept in mind while framing strategies for promotion of biotechnology for development of clean technology, in the context of industrial sustainability:
(a) Global environmental concerns will drive increased emphasis on clean industrial products and processes.
(b) Biotechnology is a powerful enabling technology for achieving clean industrial products and processes that can provide a basis for industrial sustainability.
(c) Measuring the cleanliness of an industrial product or process is essential but complex; Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is the best current tool for making this determination.
(d) The main drivers for industrial biotechnological processes are economic (market forces), government policy, and science and technology.
(e) Achieving greater penetration of biotechnology for clean environmental purposes will require joint R&D efforts by government and industry.
(f) For biotechnology to reach its full potential as a basis for clean industrial products and processes, beyond its current applications, additional R&D efforts will be needed.
(g) Because biotechnology, including recombinant DNA technology and its applications, has become increasingly important as a tool for creating value-added products and for developing biocatalysts, there is a strong need for harmonised and responsive regulations and guidelines.
(h) Market forces can provide very powerful incentives for achieving environmental cleanliness objectives.
(i) Government policies to enhance cleanliness of industrial products and processes can be the single most decisive factor in the development and industrial use of clean biotechnological processes.
(j) Communication and education will be necessary to gain penetration of biotechnology for clean products and processes into various industrial sectors.
Deforestation for food and fuel – A devastating consequence of overpopulation - to be checked immediately:
Tropical rainforests are incredibly rich ecosystems that play a fundamental role in the basic functioning of the planet. Rainforests are home to probably 50 percent of the world's species, making them an extensive library of biological and genetic resources. In addition, rainforests help maintain the climate by regulating atmospheric gases and stabilizing rainfall, protect against desertification, and provide numerous other ecological functions. These precious systems are among the most threatened on the planet because of unchecked population growth and rising demand.
As per the rough estimate, each day at least 80,000 acres (32,300 ha) of forest disappear from Earth.Rising demand for food, biofuels, wood for paper, building and industry made forest cover worldwide most vulnerable. The result of it is more deforestation, more conflict, more carbon emissions, more climate change and less prosperity for everyone. Growth in population, especially in developing countries, is the major culprit for irresponsible deforestation, degradation of global environment and climate change.
Demand for land worldwide to grow more food, fuel crops for future energy security and wood is set to outstrip supply, leading to the probable destruction of forests. Tropical forests in Asia, Africa and South America are at most vulnerable position as growth in population in developing countries in those continents is quite large.
Many reports suggests that, because of the rising demand for food and biofuel, by another two decades, more than 500 million hectares of extra land will be needed worldwide for growing crops and trees; but only 200 million hectares will be available without dipping into tropical forests. Thus, tropical forest areas are bound to be affected extensively in next couple of decades. Analysis of figures from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) shows that tropical deforestation rates increased 8.5 percent from 2000-2005 when compared with the 1990s, while loss of primary forests may have expanded by 25 percent over the same period.
Some of the studies also suggest that, if the current level in agricultural yield continues, the amount of additional agricultural land required just to meet the world's projected food demand in 2050 would be about three billion hectares and nearly all would be required in developing countries. In such a scenario, tropical forest areas in developing countries would be destroyed, without repair, almost completely.
However, some academics place their hopes in agricultural technologies including genetic engineering to boost crop yields.
The main area of concern is, since the spectacular success of the expected green revolution is, so far, quite slow. In some areas, yields are falling - a trend, which is most likely to be, intensified by climate change due to global warming. Moreover, eating into tropical forests to create extra agricultural land would, in turn, deepen climate change. Further, greenhouse gases may also rise because of extensive deforestation. As these forests fall, more carbon is added to the atmosphere, climactic conditions are further altered, and more topsoil is lost to erosion.
Solar Power – Development in new technology making it economically competitive:
We all know that solar power is excellently exciting. Just lay down a sheet or a panel exposing sun and every day, for the life of the device, you get free power. There are no fuel costs, no running or maintenance cost. It is a renewable resource, meaning no end of raw material. Therefore, we do not have to worry about the sun ever going away. Although the sun may disappear behind a few clouds for a few minutes, disappear completely at night, or for hours during the winter, we can always expect it to come back in full force. Apart, solar power is non-polluting. Unlike oil, solar power does not emit any greenhouse gases or carcinogens into the air. Solar power is good for the environment and make our atmosphere clean. Solar power is silent powered also, i.e., no noise pollution.
There are so many advantages of solar power that it is amazing that it is not yet more common. Perhaps the main reason for this is that at the onset, solar power can be expensive. Unfortunately, the size of the initial investment keeps the cost of solar generated power higher than the cost of coal. At this juncture it is worth noting that, if you take into account the environmental costs of burning coal, solar power is already slightly more economically sound. But we're not taxing carbon (yet) so we've got to make solar power cheaper. Of course, solar cells are not cheap. However, technology for this is improving, and it will continue to improve as the cost of other forms of power increase. There are few of the finest examples that are working to bring solar power to grid parity. Some of these useful technologies are briefed below:
1. The most expensive part of a traditional photovoltaic array is the silicon wafers. To solve this cost problem (and also the problem of the environmentally wasteful process of creating the silicon crystals) several people are concentrating the sunlight thousands of times onto an extremely small solar panel. They decrease the amount of solar material needed by thousands of times, and produce just as much power.
Technologies collectively known as concentrating photovoltaic are starting to enjoy their day in the sun, thanks to advances in solar cells, which absorb light and convert it into electricity, and the mirror- or lens-based concentrator systems that focus light on them. The technology could soon make solar power as cheap as electricity from the grid. The idea of concentrating sunlight to reduce the size of solar cells - and therefore to cut costs -has been around for decades. The result is solar power that is nearly as cheap (if not as cheap) as coal.
The thinking behind concentrated solar power is simple. Because energy from the sun, although abundant, is diffuse, generating one gigawatt of power (the size of a typical utility-scale plant) using traditional photovoltaic requires a four-square-mile area of silicon. A concentrator system would replace most of the silicon with plastic or glass lenses or metal reflectors, requiring only as much semiconductor material as it would take to cover an area of much smaller in size. Moreover, because of decrease in the amount of semiconductor needed makes it affordable to use much more efficient types of solar cells. The total footprint of such plant, including the reflectors or lenses, would be only two to two-and-a-half square miles.
The big problem of this technology is very hot piece of silicon. You have to keep the silicon cool, even with sunlight magnified 2000 times on it. Otherwise the silicon will melt, and it's all over. Scientists are working prototypes already and are hoping to go commercial in the coming years.
2. Another solution to the problem of limited and expensive crystalline silicon is to just not use it. This is why there are so many solar startups right now working on solar technology using non-crystalline silicon or other thin-film solutions. Many have already broken out of the lab and into manufacturing. One of the leading technologies, not using expensive crystalline silicon is ‘Nano-solar’ prints. Nano-solar prints it's mixture of several elements in precise proportions onto a metal film. The production is fast, simple and cheap, at least for now. Some fear that shortages in indium will bring a halt to nano-solar's cheap printing days. Though scientists make some efficiency sacrifices when compared to crystalline silicon, they are so much cheaper to produce that they might soon even beat coal in cost per watt.
The advantages of ‘Nano-solar’ prints are, they are super cheap, ultra-adaptable solar panels that can be printed on the side of pretty much anything, promising solar power anywhere you want it. At the present condition, they still slide under coal's $2.1-a-watt energy cost, though they're not mass produced at the scale needed to bring it to the 30-cents-a-watt level.
3. While the first two options provide the most efficient path to solar electricity, but converting photons directly into electrons, a less efficient, though simpler, option might turn out to be the real cost-effective. Simply by focusing hundreds or even thousands of mirrors onto a single point, scientists are hoping to create the kind of heat necessary to run a coal fired power plant, but without use of coal. The heat would boil water which would then be used to turn turbines. In other words, it is nothing but, concentrated thermal solar power, which concentrates the heat from the sun to power turbines or sterling engines.
The advantage of such a system is converting the existing steam turbines being produced for traditional power plants, and the rest of the technology just involves shiny objects and concrete. The problems however, are these things too hot to handle. The material holding the boiler has to be able to withstand the extreme heat that these installations can produce. That kind of material, that won't melt or degrade under such extreme heat, can be quite expensive.
Co- Generation Power Plant means to provide heat, power and environmental benefits: ‘Co-generation’ - known as combined heat and power, distributed generation, or recycled energy - is the simultaneous production of two or more forms of energy from a single fuel source. Cogeneration power plant simultaneously generates both electricity and useful heat from a common fuel source. It produces heat for industrial processes and uses a recovery boiler to generate electricity.
A. Cogeneration power plant generally includes reciprocating engines, combustion turbines, micro-turbines, backpressure steam turbines, and fuel cells. Cogeneration power plants often operate at 50 to 70 percent higher efficiency rates than single-generation facilities. In practical terms, what cogeneration usually entails is the use of what would otherwise be wasted heat (such as a manufacturing plant’s exhaust) to produce additional energy benefit, such as to provide heat or electricity for the building in which it is operating. Cogeneration is great for the bottom line and also for the environment, as recycling the waste heat saves other pollutant-spewing fossil fuels from being burned.
B. As of now, most of the thousands of cogeneration plants operating across the United States and Canada are small facilities operated by non-utility companies and by institutions like universities and the military. Cogeneration saves its customers up to 40% on their energy expenses, and provides even greater savings to our environment. Cogeneration, as previously described above, is also known as “combined heat and power” (CHP). Cogeneration is a proven technology that has been around in US for over 100 years. In fact, America’s first commercial power plant was a cogeneration plant that was designed and built by Thomas Edison in 1882 in New York.
C. Primary fuels commonly used in cogeneration include natural gas, oil, diesel fuel, propane, coal, wood, wood-waste and bio-mass. These "primary" fuels are used to make electricity, a "secondary" fuel. This is why electricity, when compared on a btu to btu basis, is typically 3-5 times more expensive than primary fuels such as natural gas. Due to competitive pressures to cut costs and reduce emissions of air pollutants and greenhouse gasses, owners and operators of industrial and commercial facilities are actively looking for ways to use energy more efficiently. One option is cogeneration, also known as combined heat and power (CHP). Cogeneration/CHP is the simultaneous production of electricity and useful heat from the same fuel or energy. Facilities with cogeneration systems use them to produce their own electricity, and use the unused excess (waste) heat for process steam, hot water heating, space heating, and other thermal needs. They may also use excess process heat to produce steam for electricity production. Cogeneration technologies are conventional power generation systems with the means to make use of the energy remaining in exhaust gases, cooling systems, or other energy waste stream. Typical cogeneration prime movers include: Combustion turbines, Reciprocating engines, Boilers with steam turbines, Micro-turbines, Fuel cells.
D. A typical cogeneration system consists of an engine, steam turbine, or combustion turbine that drives an electrical generator. A waste heat exchanger recovers waste heat from the engine and/or exhaust gas to produce hot water or steam. Cogeneration produces a given amount of electric power and process heat with 10% to 30% less fuel than it takes to produce the electricity and process heat separately. There are two main types of cogeneration techniques: (a) "Topping Cycle" plants, and (b) "Bottoming Cycle" plants.
(a) "Topping Cycle" plants - A topping cycle plant generates electricity or mechanical power first. Facilities that generate electrical power may produce the electricity for their own use, and then sell any excess power to a utility. There are four types of topping cycle cogeneration systems. (i) The first type burns fuel in a gas turbine or diesel engine to produce electrical or mechanical power. The exhaust provides process heat, or goes to a heat recovery boiler to create steam to drive a secondary steam turbine. This is a combined-cycle topping system. (ii) The second type of system burns fuel (any type) to produce high-pressure steam that then passes through a steam turbine to produce power. The exhaust provides low-pressure process steam. This is a steam-turbine topping system. (iii) A third type burns a fuel such as natural gas, diesel, wood, gasified coal, or landfill gas. The hot water from the engine jacket cooling system flows to a heat recovery boiler, where it is converted to process steam and hot water for space heating. (iv) The fourth type is a gas-turbine topping system. A natural gas turbine drives a generator. The exhaust gas goes to a heat recovery boiler that makes process steam and process heat.A topping cycle cogeneration plant always uses some additional fuel, beyond what is needed for manufacturing, so there is an operating cost associated with the power production.
(b) "Bottoming Cycle" plants - Bottoming cycle plants are much less common than topping cycle plants. These plants exist in heavy industries such as glass or metals manufacturing where very high temperature furnaces are used.
A waste heat recovery boiler recaptures waste heat from a manufacturing heating process. This waste heat is then used to produce steam that drives a steam turbine to produce electricity. Since fuel is burned first in the production process, no extra fuel is required to produce electricity.
E. An emerging technology that has cogeneration possibilities is the fuel cell. A fuel cell is a device that converts hydrogen to electricity without combustion. Heat is also produced. Most fuel cells use natural gas (composed mainly of methane) as the source of hydrogen. The first commercial availability of fuel cell technology was the phosphoric acid fuel cell, which has been on the market for a few years. Other fuel cell technologies (molten carbonate and solid oxide) are in early stages of development. Solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) may be potential source for cogeneration, due to the high temperature heat generated by their operation.
F. Environmental Issues - While cogeneration provides several environmental benefits by making use of waste heat and waste products, air pollution is a concern any time fossil fuels or biomass are burned. The major regulated pollutants include particulates, sulfur dioxide (SO2), and nitrous oxides (NOx).Some cogeneration systems, such as diesel engines, do not capture as much waste heat as other systems. Others may not be able to use all the thermal energy that they produce because of their location. They are therefore less efficient, and the corresponding environmental benefits are less than they could be. The environmental impacts of air and water pollution and waste disposal are very site-specific for cogeneration. This is a problem for some cogeneration plants because the special equipment (water treatment, air scrubbers, etc.) required to meet environmental regulations adds to the cost of the project. If, on the other hand, pollution control equipment is required for the primary industrial or commercial process anyway, cogeneration can be economically attractive.
G. Cogeneration Benefits - Cogeneration offers energy, environmental, and economic benefits, including: (a) Saving money - By improving efficiency, cogeneration systems can reduce fuel costs associated with providing heat and electricity to a facility. (b) Improving power reliability - Cogeneration systems are located at the point of energy use. They provide high-quality and reliable power and heat locally to the energy user, and they also help reduce congestion on the electric grid by removing or reducing load. In this way, cogeneration systems effectively assist or support the electric grid, providing enhanced reliability in electricity transmission and distribution. (c) Reducing environmental impact - Because of its improved efficiency in fuel conversion, cogeneration reduces the amount of fuel burned for a given energy output and reduces the corresponding emissions of pollutants and greenhouse gases. (d) Conserving limited resources of fossil fuels - Because cogeneration requires less fuel for a given energy output, the use of cogeneration reduces the demand on our limited natural resources—including coal, natural gas, and oil—and improves energy security.
Thus, co-generation units bring about the utmost economical and ecological advantage in a field where they can be meaningfully employed.
Environmental protection using Biotechnology – An overview:
A. The surroundings around us are termed as ‘environment’. Our environment includes the abiotic component (the non living) and biotic component (the living). The abiotic environment includes air, water and soil; and the biotic environment consists of all living organisms such as plants, animals and microorganisms. Environmental pollution broadly refers to the presence of undesirable substances in the environment which are harmful to man and other organisms. There has been a significant increase in the levels of harmful environmental pollution mostly due to direct or indirect human activities in recent past. The major sources of environmental pollution are industries, agricultural and other anthropogenic and biogenic sources etc. The pollutants are chemical, biological and physical in nature.
B. Controlling the environmental pollution and the conservation of environment and biodiversity and controlling environmental pollution are the major focus areas of all the countries around the world. In this context, the importance and impact of biotechnological approaches and the implications of biotechnology has to be thoroughly evaluated. There have been serious concerns regarding the use of biotechnological products and the impact assessment of these products due to their interaction with the environmental factors. A lobby of the environmentalists has expressed alarm on the release of genetically engineered organisms in the atmosphere and have stressed on thorough investigation and proper risk assessment of theses organisms before releasing them in to the environment. The effect of the effluents from biotechnological companies is also a cause of concern for everyone. The need of the hour is to have a proper debate on the safety of the use of the biotechnological products. The efforts are not only on to use biotechnology to protect the environment from pollution but also to use it to conserve the natural resources. As we all know that microorganisms are known natural scavengers so the microbial preparations (both natural as well as genetically engineered) can be used to clean up the environmental hazards.
C. Biotechnology is being used to provide alternative cleaner technologies which help to further reduce the hazardous environmental implications of the traditional technologies. Some of the well known examples and mechanisms are:
(i) Some fermentation technologies have some serious environmental implications. Various biotechnological processes have been devised in which all nutrients introduced for fermentation are retained in the final product, which ensures high conversion efficiency and low environmental impact.
(ii) In paper industry, the pulp bleaching technologies are being replaced by more environmentally friendly technologies involving biotechnology. The pulp processing helps to remove the lignin without damaging valuable cellulosic fibres but the available techniques suffer from the disadvantages of high costs, high energy use and corrosion. A lignin degrading and modifying enzyme (LDM) was isolated from Phanerochaete chrysosporum and was used, which on one hand, helped to reduce the energy costs and corrosion and on the other hand increased the life of the system. This approach helped in reducing the environmental hazards associated with bleach plant effluents.
(iii) In Plastic industry, the conventional technologies use oil based raw materials to extract ethylene and propylene which are converted to alkene oxides and then polymerized to form plastics such as polypropylene and polyethylene. There is always the risk of these raw materials escaping into the atmosphere thereby causing pollution. Using biotechnology, more safer raw materials like sugars (glucose) are being used which are enzymatically or through the direct use of microbes converted into alkene oxides.e.g. Methylococcus capsulatus has been used for converting alkene into alkene oxides.
(iv) Bioremediation is defined as ‘the process of using microorganisms to remove the environmental pollutants where microbes serve as scavengers. The removal of organic wastes by microbes leads to environmental cleanup. The other names/terms used for bioremediation are bio-treatment, bio-reclamation, and bio-restoration. The term “Xenobiotics” (xenos means foreign) refers to the unnatural, foreign and synthetic chemicals such as pesticides, herbicides, refrigerants, solvents and other organic compounds. The microbial degradation of xenobiotics also helps in reducing the environmental pollution. Depending on the method followed to clean up the environment, the bioremediation is carried out in two ways:
(a) In situ bioremediation – involves a direct approach for the microbial degradation of xenobiotics at the site of pollution which could be soil, water etc. The in situ bioremediation is generally used for clean up of oil spillages, beaches etc.;
(b) Ex-situ bioremediation - In this the waste and the toxic material is collected from the polluted sites and the selected range of microorganisms carry out the bioremediation at designed place. This process is an improved method over the in situ bioremediation method.
(v) Pseudomonas which is a soil microorganism effectively degrades xenobiotics. Different strains of Pseudomonas that are capable of detoxifying more than 100 organic compounds (e.g. phenols, biphenyls, organophosphates, naphthalene etc.) have been identified. Some other microbial strains are also known to have the capacity to degrade xenobiotics such as Mycobacterium, Alcaligenes, Norcardia etc.
D. In recent years, efforts have been made to create genetically engineered microorganisms to enhance bioremediation. This is done to overcome some of the limitations and problems in bioremediation. These problems are: a) Sometimes the growth of microorganisms gets inhibited or reduced by the xenobiotics. b) No single naturally occurring microorganisms has the capability of degrading all the xenobiotics present in the environmental pollution. c) The microbial degradation is a very slow process. d) Sometimes certain xenobiotics get adsorbed on to the particulate matter of soil and thus become unavailable for microbial degradation.
E. As the majority of genes responsible for the synthesis of enzymes with biodegradation capability that are located on the plasmids, the genetic manipulations of plasmids can lead to the creation of new strains of bacteria with different degradative pathways. Well known example of genetic manipulations of plasmids is development of ‘Superbug’, which is used for degrading a number of hydrocarbons of petroleum simultaneously such as camphor, octane, xylene, naphthalene etc.
F. We all know that, carbon dioxide (CO2) is the main cause of green house effect and rise in the atmospheric temperature. There is a steady increase in the CO2 content due to continuous addition of CO2 from various sources particularly from industrial processes. It is very clear that the reduction in atmospheric CO2 concentration assumes significance. Biotechnological methods have been used to reduce the atmospheric CO2 content at two levels:
(a) Photosynthesis- Plants utilize CO2 during the photosynthesis which reduces the CO2 content in the atmosphere;
(b) Biological Calcification- Certain deep sea organisms like corals, green and red algae store CO2 through a process of biological calcification. As the CaCO3 gets precipitated, more and more atmospheric CO2 can be utilized for its formation.
G. The sewage is treated to get rid of these undesirable substances by subjecting the organic matter to biodegradation by microorganisms. The biodegradation involves the degradation of organic matter to smaller molecules, such as CO2, NH3, PO4 etc., and requires constant supply of oxygen. The process of supplying oxygen is expensive, tedious, and requires a lot of expertise and manpower. These problems are overcome by growing micro-algae in the ponds and tanks where sewage treatment is carried out. The algae release the O2 while carrying out the photosynthesis which ensures a continuous supply of oxygen for biodegradation. The algae are also capable of adsorbing certain heavy toxic metals due to the negative charges on the algal cell surface which can take up the positively charged metals. The algal treatment of sewage also supports fish growth as algae are a good source of food for fishes.
H. The environmental impact assessment system requires proponents to foresee possible environmental impacts when a development project is being planned, and to conduct an environmental assessment. However, debate continues on exactly what kinds of environmental protection measures are needed and how they should be integrated into a given project to achieve desirable environmental results. Actions to deal with global warming and to prevent ozone layer depletion are gaining momentum, but currently available technologies may not be enough to meet the required targets. Technological advances are needed in order to make progress in solving these issues, as well as with the problem of dioxins. New developments are also needed in technologies for pollution removal and environmental restoration, in cases where environmental pollution has already been generated or is already accumulating in the environment.
Environmental biotechnology – serving the future
Like white biotechnology, environmental biotechnology, often referred to as “grey biotechnology”, also focuses on sustainability. For instance, environmental biotechnology deals with the treatment of sewage water, the purification of exhaust gas or the decontamination of soils or ground water using specific microorganisms.
The use of organisms for the removal of contamination or pollutants is generally referred to as bioremediation. Originally, bioremediation was mainly used in cleanup operations, including the decomposition of spilt oil or slagheaps containing radioactive waste. In addition, bioremediation is also the method of choice when solvents, plastics or heavy metals and toxic substances like DDT, dioxins or TNT need to be removed.
Bioadsorption processes using newly developed bioadsorbers made from renewable materials are currently being developed. These adsorbers function as ion exchangers and are used in the elimination and disposal of toxic heavy metals. The industrial use of mineral resources leads to the drastic accumulation of these pollutants in the biosphere. The new bioadsorbers are used for the elimination of heavy metals and radionuklids from industrial wastewater, ore mine wastewater, seepage water from dumpsites or wastewater from nuclear power stations.
Energy security – ‘Clean Coal’ has potential to change the world from pariah to paragon of virtue in high oil price regime.
A. The thirst of populous emerging economies for energy and the industrial countries’ sustained need for energy will ensure a further rise in demand. However, it looks as if the supply of oil, and later also natural gas, will not keep pace with this demand. Only by leveraging every possible means will it be possible to compensate the imbalances emerging on the horizon. However, during the transition to the renewable sources of energy such as wind and solar age, an energy gap will have to be filled.
B. With oil currently trading at around USD 140/bbl, coal-to-liquid technology is already an interesting alternative from a purely commercial point of view. Coal offers great potential as a substitute for oil and natural gas in the medium term, but so far its versatility has been underestimated. Going forward, coal could attract more attention in all three major energy sectors – power generation, the heating market and transport – provided that the right technologies delivering higher efficiency and lower environmental burdens take root. Environmental risks emphasize need for “clean coal”. Global warming is one of the biggest dangers facing human existence on earth, and combating this danger is therefore one of the greatest challenges. Since coal causes 40% of global CO2 emissions, only advanced technology can pave the way to a better future. The required quantum leaps in technology could, however, open the doors to the global mass markets. The need for investment is very high not only in emerging economies like China and India but also in US and Europe. CO2-free coal-fired power plants could become a milestone on the way to a better energy future in spite of their additional fuel consumption.
C. Worldwide prospects for energy is actually quite good, but only if all possible levers are used. These include steps – apart from urgently needed conservation and efficiency-enhancing strategies – to diversify the range of energy carriers with an even greater drive to mobilize renewable energies and to continue developing potential alternative technologies. In public debate about our energy options after the petroleum age virtually no consideration is given to coal or else it gets very bad reviews. In the developed countries, coal is usually considered synonymous with a dangerous climate killer; in the developing countries, for inhuman labor conditions in the mining industry, the talk is of ‘blood coal’. At best, coal is given credit for its valuable contribution to energy security during the industrialization era.
D. Today, coal is used in the industrial countries above all as a source of fuel for generating electricity, for the heating market and for metal production. In some of the emerging economies, coal is still used in some places to fire steam engines. Going forward, coal could attract much more attention in all three major energy sectors – power generation, heating and transport – provided that the right technologies with higher efficiency levels and a low environmental impact take root. In this sense, the versatility of coal has been underestimated. As a substitute for the hydrocarbon fuels oil and natural gas, which will become increasingly scarce in the relatively near future, coal offers considerable potential for improving our energy structures in future. However, only advanced technologies and innovations will be able to pave the way for coal into a better future.
E. As mentioned above, environmental risk emphasizes need for “clean coal”.Global warming is one of the biggest dangers facing human existence on earth, and combating this danger is therefore one of the greatest challenges facing mankind. Fossil fuels, especially those that pose the greatest threat to the earth’s climate, will only have a future if they can be reinvented from an ecological standpoint. Coal accounts for 40% of global output of carbon dioxide (CO2). The ‘bridge to the future’ must therefore lead to ‘clean coal’, which if possible has to be climate neutral and thus acceptable to the public at large. If ‘King Coal’, the mythical figure of the coalmining saga, stops wearing a black robe in future and instead dons an environmentally-friendly white robe, his days will not be numbered and he may go on to prosper the second time round. Until renewable sources of energy are finally mature and established enough to shoulder the burden of the world energy supply largely on their own, the purified ‘clean coal’ may develop into one of the biggest sources of hope for a more secure energy supply.
F. One advantage of coal is that it offers the greatest range of global reserves among the fossil fuels. Plenty of coal reserve, up to about more than 200 years worth, is readily available, almost all over the world. By contrast, the ranges for oil (42 years) and natural gas (63 years) are much smaller.
G. The search for alternatives to conventional fuels did not seem to be an urgent task in late 1998 when a barrel of oil cost less than USD 10. Not quite 10 years later, with oil going for an annual average price of USD 65 in 2006. The most prominent participants in the contest for the fuels of the future are:
(i) First-generation bio-fuels are increasing in popularity in the most diverse countries of the world, such as Brazil, the US and Germany. In Brazil, they have long since become commercially competitive. Research on the second generation, the synthetic bio-fuels (biomass-to-liquids, or BTL), is continuing briskly.
(ii) Natural gas has been a common fuel in some countries for years. More appears to be possible if the catalytic conversion of natural gas proves able to secure the availability of a synthetic fuel, so called GTL (gas-to-liquids), on an industrial scale. GTL and BTL will mean fewer emissions and higher efficiency.
(iii) By means of liquefaction (coal-to-liquids, CTL), coal may directly replace oil even as a fuel. Thanks to higher reserve and resource ranges, coal as a substitute would clearly have an advantage over fuels based on natural gas.
(iv) Nuclear energy will be one of the major contributors to the world energy sources.Although, there is furious opposition against nuclear energy in some part of the world, the advantage of its potential of delivery of clean energy is the major plus point makes it better option.
H. A total of USD 10 trillion is expected to be invested in power generating plants around the globe up to 2030, with over USD 2 trillion being invested in China alone. The need for investment is very high all over the world. For investments, not only the direct costs but also the implications for the world climate will increasingly gain importance. This holds all the more so as over the past 30 years the share of CO2 emissions from coal has risen from 35% to 40% – with total emissions rising by 70% globally. One much more revolutionary project is a plan to develop emission-free coal-fired generating plants. Upstream and downstream CO2 sequestration, for which there are several different methods, aims for climate conservation. Thus, new power generation technology for fewer emissions will become the backbone of industrialization.
Biotechnology to address many global environmental concerns:
A. Industrial biotechnology has come of age. Improved industrial sustainability through biotechnology addresses many global environmental concerns. Biotechnology has clear environmental advantages and is economically competitive in a growing number of industrial sectors. It enables reductions of material and energy consumption, as well as pollution and waste generation, for the same level of industrial production. Continued technical innovation, including that based upon recombinant DNA technology, is vital for the wider utilisation of biotechnology by industry.
B. With biotechnology, the emphasis is no longer on the removal of pollutants from an already damaged environment, but on the need to reshape industrial process technologies to prevent pollution at the source. Achieving ‘‘clean technology’’ or ‘‘industrial sustainability’’ – the two terms are largely congruent – will not be possible without a steady stream of creative innovations based on advanced science and technologies, among which biotechnology is likely to play an increasing role.
C. Although definitions of sustainable development have frequently proved elusive, it is clear that any move towards industrial sustainability will affect all stages of a product’s or process’s life cycle. It will require new design principles based on a global and holistic approach to reducing environmental impacts: global because these impacts transcend national borders, holistic because short-term, piecemeal solutions to address a succession of issues in isolation will be less and less effective. One important means of integrating environmental issues into industrial design and operations is the adoption of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA).
D. There are three main drivers of clean technology: (a) Economic competitiveness, with companies considering the advantages of clean products and processes in terms of market niches or cost advantages; (b) Government policies, which enforce or encourage changes in manufacturing practices; and (c) Public pressure, which takes on strategic importance as companies seek to establish environmental legitimacy.
E. It is possible to foresee a growing role for industrial process biotechnology, both because it may afford clear economic and environmental benefits, and because the power of the tool itself continues to grow. The expectations of greater cleanliness come from the observation that living systems manage their chemistry rather more efficiently than man-made chemical plants, and that their wastes tend to be recyclable and biodegradable. This, along with our increasing ability to manipulate biological materials and processes, strongly points to a significant impact on the future of manufacturing industries.
F. Here there is a brief picture of how modern process biotechnology is penetrating industrial operations:
(i) Biotechnology embraces a wide range of techniques, and none of these will apply across all industrial sectors. Nonetheless, the technology is so versatile that many industries that have not used biological sciences in the past are now exploring the possibility of doing so. Already, the economic competitiveness of a variety of biotechnological applications to achieve cleanliness has been established. This is essential, as environmental benefits alone have seldom driven the adoption of biotechnology-based processes. Such processes have been successfully integrated into some large-scale operations. However, a number of problems remain for industrial applications, particularly the entrenched infrastructure of companies that have traditionally relied on physical and chemical technology alone and whose engineers have no training in life sciences or technologies.
(ii) Chemicals manufacturing is a major generator of materials, a major consumer of energy and non-renewable resources, and a major contributor to waste and pollution. In these sub-sectors, market penetration of biotechnology varies. It is in the fine chemical industries that the impact of clean biotechnology is most visible.
(iii)While fossil carbon (oil, coal) is the single most important raw material for energy generation and for chemicals, the concomitant CO2 emissions are a source of increasing concern because CO2 is a major greenhouse gas. Biotechnology can contribute to reducing fossil carbon consumption and hence global warming in various ways: improving industrial processes and energy efficiency, and producing biomass-based materials and clean fuels.
(iv) In pulp and paper, market penetration of biotechnology used for clean production is particularly high in many of the developed nations, and biotechnology is becoming more important in the manufacture of textiles and leather throughout the western world.
(v) In the food and feed sector, the impact of biotechnology on clean industrial processes seems to be greatest in the United States.
(vi) Biotechnology for mining and metals recovery covers two major technologies: bioleaching/minerals bio-oxidation, where superior cleanliness and economic profitability have been claimed in specific cases, and metals bioremediation and recovery.
(vii) In the energy sector, biotechnology has had a major effect both on economics and on environmental impacts. It has improved the overall efficiency of processes, particularly in the area of pollution control. Processes currently under development, such as bio-diesel, bio-ethanol and bio-desulphurisation, seek to replace energy-intensive and polluting systems with systems that are more environmentally friendly. The effect of rDNA methods on these technologies will be great, but large-scale application of rDNA has only recently begun and has not yet had dramatic effects.
G. Although the potential of biotechnology to reduce raw materials and energy consumption as well as wastes is attractive, there is a need for further encouragement, notably by government, particularly when the economic advantages are not overwhelming in the early stages of adoption.
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