INQUIRY >> RENEWABLE ENERGY

INQUIRY >> RENEWABLE ENERGY

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The greenhouse effect: old chestnut or misunderstood issue?

There is a great deal of discussion nowadays concerning all aspects of greenhouse gases, but perhaps without taking into consideration the fact that greenhouse gases are a natural phenomena in whose absence average global temperatures would be -18 °C instead of their current level of +18 °C. The naturally occurring phenomenon constituted by greenhouse gases is governed by the composition of the atmosphere, whose characteristics are partially determined by human activity.
The main greenhouse gas is water vapor, followed by carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4, value of 21 in CO2 equivalent), nitrogen protoxide (NzO, value of 310 in CO2 equivalent), hydrofluorocarbons (HFC, value of 140 to 24,000 in CO2 equivalent) and sulfur hexafluoride (SF6).

A complex scientific issue

It is no easy task to isolate and measure precisely the weak anthropic signal, and create long term models of dynamic systems that are associated with numerous negative or positive iterations. What is known for certain is that CO2 emissions rose by 16.4 percent between 1990 and 1992, and that two-thirds of this increase is directly attributable to China, India and the US. At the same time, emissions attributable generated by the rapidly growing economies of Greece, Spain, Ireland and Portugal are also increasing rapidly , whereas the use of nuclear and hydraulic power for virtually all power generation in France and Sweden has kept these countries’ carbon emissions relatively low. Countries such as Germany and Great Britain that have replaced high carbon coal or lignite with lower-carbon natural gas have managed to reduce carbon emissions – but from relatively high baseline levels. Standard of living is another variable that comes into play here, since it creates additional energy needs that are mainly attributable to aggregate consumption and the increased use of entities that use large amounts of electricity or fuel.
Against this backdrop, can we reasonably expect a model to be implemented that will allow for reduced carbon emissions while still maintaining our current standard of living – unless we decide to deliberately limit population growth? Clearly the major problem here lies in the inherent contradiction between the desire to achieve economic growth and the desire to reduce carbon emissions. According to France’s Interministerial Task Force on Climate Change (MIES), a 2 percent annual growth rate in France would drive up greenhouse gas emissions on the order of 10 percent by 2010, simply through the implementation of actions that are already in the pipeline. Reconciling economic growth with environmental stewardship requires complex and extremely ambitious solutions that also take energy price increases into account, since they hamper growth and thus exacerbate unemployment. There is no lack of greenhouse gas reduction solutions, but they must also dovetail coherently with overall consumption patterns, because let’s face it: no one in their right mind will willingly do without electricity or a means of transportation. The most obvious solution (because it can be applied by all concerned) is to simply reduce energy consumption, which has in fact been declining been ever since it became an issue. But unfortunately this decrease is not rapid enough to register any significant effects, and it will undoubtedly be some time until energy reduction is widely adopted as a viable greenhouse gas reduction solution. The other solutions (biomass, hydrogen, fuel cells, windpower, solar power, and heat pumps) are promising, but are also of a more technological nature. Some are well known, but the other more complex ones merit more attention than they have received thus far. Toward this end, several of these alternative energy sources will now be described.

Biomass

**As I said, where I left things out it’s on purpose. That definition would have been incoherent in English. All of your changes reversed except for one (bitumen).
Biomass is the sum total of all material attributable to all species that exist in a specific natural habitat. In the energy domain, biomass means all forms of energy that are generated by the breakdown of organic material via solar energy, transformed by green plants and used directly (e.g. wood as direct energy); or that are generated as the result of a slightly higher magnitude of transformation, namely the methanization of organic material resulting in biogas; or resulting from any other form of transformation that is suitable for specific chemical technological parameters with a view to producing fuel. Biomass is also very efficient for composting, which allows for the production of natural fertilizers that can be substituted for chemical fertilizers. Biomass can be obtained from agriculture, silviculture and related wastes.

Biomass processing for commercialization

There are three main ways to process biomass that correspond to three principal elements that are found in it. Woody (lignine) biomass, which is derived from wood or wood residue, straw, fodder and the like, and is processed using thermochemical conversion technologies. Carbohydrate biomass, which is rich in carbohydrates that are readily hydrolyzed, and is derived from grains, sugar beets, and sugar cane. This type of biomass is processed via a fermentation or distillation method known as biological conversion. The third main type is oleaginous biomass, which is rich in lipids and is obtained from colza, palm oil and the like. This type of biomass is suitable for use as a fuel. There are two types of biofuels: colza (esters of vegetable oil) and ethanol, which is derived from wheat and beets. These fuels can be blended with super unleaded gasoline as ethyl tertio-butyl ether (ETBE).
Each type of biofuel has its advantages and disadvantages in terms of supply logistics, transport costs, environmental impact and public health. For example, household use of wood for fuel can lead to respiratory problems in the absence of adequate ventilation. In the case of wood, there is no disputing the fact that in order to avoid exacerbating the greenhouse effect and deforestation, through the use of this resource to produce heat or electricity, the trees that are harvested for fuel must be replaced. Some studies on biomass fuels and their use are still ongoing owing to the fact that biomass is produced and used in widely varying ways and the study results obtained often lead to further research. This evolution is still in its infancy and awaits further progress.

Hydrogen – fuel of the future ?

It is often said nowadays that hydrogen is the fuel of the future. All stakeholders appear to be pinning their hopes on hydrogen and fuel cells, despite the fact that much remains to be learned about its target applications and how they would work. For example, hydrogen storage currently constitutes a major hindrance to its use, and fuel cell miniaturization of for use at closer proximity to individual means of transportation is a veritable challenge. Hence it appears that the problems associated with hydrogen will not be solved at any time in the near future. Numerous tests have shown that hydrogen has great potential as well as certain drawbacks. And it is of course far easier to make a splashy media announcement than to come up with viable, practicable and widely applicable solutions.

In conclusion, all of this is moving in the direction of curbing the greenhouse effect in that efforts are being made to devise solutions that produce lower amounts of greenhouse gas, and particularly carbon emissions. But the main problem of modern life resides in the fact that it is not easy to convey the message – particularly to our political leaders – that we need to address the real problems of today’s society, namely the automobile, waste collection and sorting, reducing energy use, and other types of problems as well. We need to develop environmentally safe mass transit technologies, transform city centers into pedestrian zones, establish bicycle paths, create green spaces, and wean ourselves away from asphalt – at least a little bit. How long will it take us to accomplish this? It’s time we started asking this question.

Note: the scientific information in the present article is taken from Wikipedia.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Three competitivity clusters join their forces

Three renewable energy clusters met together at Eurexpo in Lyon. Although the Renewable Energy exhibition didn’t hit the headlines, a mere glance on the stands proved that the exhibitors took it most seriously.
All the leaders in windmills, photovoltaic, wood, water, hydrogen and other sources of energy were present, without forgetting gas and the biomasses. The current energy problem is such that 3 poles of competitiveness, “Capénergies” for Provence-Alps-Côte d'Azur, “Derbi” for Languedoc-Roussillon and “Tennerdis” for the Rhone-Alps, wished to mark this event by their presence. We do not often have the opportunity to see three regions gathered together on the same premises – it is sufficiently rare to be noted – it proves that everything is possible!

Laurent Coussedière, General Delegate of Tennerdis, explained to us the reasons for this meeting: «The aim is to give an overall view, on a national scale, of all the activities in the field of renewable energies. We were eager to join together with Derbi and Capénergies to set up a sector-based coordination with important actions, notably the elaboration of a brochure presenting the three clusters and the recognised projects that are financed by them. We took advantage of this exhibition where there are many international speakers, to show a strong image of our complementarities. And well beyond this show, we have planned several actions, joint-labelling projects, developing trans-national and European relations and all kinds of strategic actions. This should all take form within the near future because we have already begun. Furthermore, we are lucky that these three clusters are situated in magnificent regions in the South of France. We consider that it is more logical to present a coherent, united group on an international level."
We were indeed able to ascertain that there were plenty of projects underway, all equally dynamic : Tennerdis (Rhone-Alps) presented “Reducop II”, which launches photovoltaic energy in the race towards results, Derbi (Languedoc-Roussillon) revealed “Pegasus”, which promotes a new generation solar power station, “IMCPBAT” (Tennerdis) serves to waterproof houses with paraffin wax, “Cefiim” (Derbi), a building specially conceived for the Mediterranean climate, “Stocsol” (Capénergies-PACA) proposes stocking heat and coupling with solar energy, “Cathy” (Tennerdis) for channelling hydrogen, “Galacsy” for the allothermic gasification of ligno-cellulose for the production of synthesis fuel… and many more. Everything mingles and joins together to better preserve the environment by arousing the awareness not only of companies, but also of consumers by showing them that it is possible to save energy and that it is indeed in their interest. Congratulations ! But it is certainly only the beginning….

The Rhone-Alps cluster has precise objectives

On the occasion of the Renewable Energies Show, we met Laurent Coussedière, general delegate of the «Tennerdis " cluster, who briefly (because he was awaited by the representatives of the Ministry) defined the various targets towards which they are striving.
«In terms of activity and development, Tennerdis is the leading cluster in France for renewable energies; it handles two fields, building and transport. It is concerned by three types of renewable energies that are solar energy, the forestry biomass and hydraulics, and it develops projects on four energy vectors, electricity, thermic, biofuels and hydrogen. We have structured a cluster around five programs, solar energy in building, the management of networks, the transformation of ligno-cellulosic biomass, hydrogen, the fuel cell and the hydraulic program. Our strong points lie in the fact that we rely on infrastructures, called
"competence hubs", for each of the programs. There is the national institute of solar energy which recently set up on the “Savoie Technolac” site in Chambéry, there is a whole platform around the management of networks and stocking with the Polytechnic National Institute of Grenoble (INP), which is a centre of research that enables manufacturers to set up demonstrators on the site to organize our program committees where people can meet together. That is the role of the competitiveness cluster, but in Rhone-Alps, there were already important relationships between a number of companies, large ones and research centres. The cluster has made it possible to also develop close relations with the public laboratories, and with a host of small firms working in the field of renewable energies. At the show we organized a meeting business where start-ups and SME’s can meet other actors, small or large companies, but also the actors of private financing. The cluster can spur all sorts of transversal actions, which benefit to the SME’s and start-ups.”

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

RENEWABLE ENERGY : A NEW WORLD ORDER – OR TOO LITTLE TOO LATE

bY Dominique Thibault

According to France’s national environmental and energy organization ADEME, 14 percent of the country’s electricity, 19 percent of its heat and only 1 percent of its fuel (respectively, from hydroelectric power, wood, and bioethanol/diester) count as renewable energy, although the use of solar energy and bioenergy has been on the rise since 2006. Northern France burns more biofuel, while the southwest favors solar energy and biomass. Why this regional difference? What are the most promising energy sources for Europe in the coming years? The present article surveys the field against the backdrop of new international challenges and on the basis of experts reports and the interim results of pilot projects.

Wind power is the renewable resource whose use has shot up most rapidly in recent years, spurred by EU legislation requiring member states to achieve 21 percent renewable energy use by 2010. Although wind power is not widely used in France, its deployment has increased by 140 percent over the past five years, bringing to 1000 the number of windmills deployed at 120 sites. These installations generate 1500 megawatts of power – a mere drop in the energy bucket compared to Germany’s 18,000 megawatts and Spain’s 10,000. Thus, despite the government decree of July 2006 that calls for a tenfold increase in wind power generation by 2020, it would seem that France will not be able to meet its self defined goals.
And so the country is turning to lower cost renewable energy resources, particularly wood. Some 1000 municipal and industrial wood-fired boilers have been rolled out since 2000, and the retail market for these boilers has grown by 127 percent since 2004, according to ADEME.
Wood-fired boilers are environmental manna from heaven, since they’re fed automatically with compacted wood residue and reduce energy costs by 15-30 percent. In the same vein, the demand for geothermal heat has increased some 20-30 percent over the past two years, and the market for the attendant technology is growing at a rapid clip. Geothermal heat involves capturing heat from the earth’s crust to produce heat or electricity (depending on the temperature of the heat captured).
Outside France there is also a trend toward hybrid wind and solar power solutions, with the biggest economies leading the way. According to the US Department of Energy, demand for renewable energy on the part of the country’s large corporations, institutions, and government agencies has now reached 2200 MW, up 1000 percent since 2000. In March 2005 China passed a renewable energy law that calls for increasing the share of power generated by solar and wind technologies to 10 percent of the country’s total consumption by 2010. And in Europe, Great Britain is the exemplar in this domain, by virtue of having opened a third offshore wind power plant (at Kentish Flats on the Thames estuary), with output amounting to 90 MW. Wales’s 58 MW Cefn Croes wind power plant keeps 42,000 households lit up, and will reduce carbon emissions by 4 million tons over its 25 year life.

The solar tower at the CIS Building in Manchester uses more solar panels than any structure in Great Britain. The PACA region is emulating the tower’s example by expediting use of the region’s resources through a number of innovative projects that dovetail productively with businesses, as well as local and European institutions.

Solar initiatives in the Paca region

In the interest of jump starting France’s solar industry so as to enable clean and inexhaustible and solar energy to meet the needs of isolated locations worldwide (a market comprising 2.5 billion persons), the French government has instituted a number of incentives: a 10 point tax credit increase for solar power as from January 2006, and a 50 percent tax credit increase on EDF’s electricity buyback tariffs (pursuant to the Directive of July 26, 2006) amounting to EUR 30 cts/kWh for private households, and a EUR 55 cts/kWh tax credit for professionals and municipalities for all solar energy solutions integrated into a building.

These incentives had had a virtually instantaneous beneficial effect on an industry where sales had been stagnating big time Conergy SAS, the Var-based affiliate of the European solar energy industry leader, registered more than EUR 800 million in sales in 2006, 40 percent of which were accounted for by the B2B sector, and has been growing at lightning speed since the third quarter of 2006. “Our company (formerly AET France) – whose 2005 sales were EUR 9 million in France, the French territories (which account for 90 percent of our sales) and Africa – is anticipating a 100 percent sales increase by the end of 2007 and plans to hire 50 new employees by 2009 as the result of new measures and our merger in November of last year with the German group Conergy,” said the company’s CEO Emmanuel Berthod
This series of measures has also worked to the benefit of the building construction and public works sector, which accounts for 25 percent of France’s greenhouse gas emissions. A recent law requires the sector to level off its carbon emissions by 2010 and reduce them fourfold by 2050. Aware of how much is at stake here, the Nice-based CARI construction company has become one of the first providers to realize eco-construction, thus paving the way for a new generation of construction companies.
According to CARI’s president, Georges Dao, “It is urgent for us construction industry professionals to adopt a high environmental quality approach to all of our projects from now on. This means using the most innovative materials and technologies so that we can reduce energy consumption and ensure that our buildings are beneficial for building users and their lifestyle.” In 2005, CARI (which employs 2250 and whose 2005 sales were EUR 323 million) converted its Agora Einstein Centre d’Affaires et d’Evénements (business and events center) at the Sophia Antipolis energy technology research institute into a model project for renewable energy and energy conservation. Outfitted with 250 square meters of solar panels, a reversible heat pump and LED lighting, the center became the first privately owned building in the Cote d’Azur region to sell its electricity to EDF, thus reducing its 2007 consumption by one third (from 880 MW in 2006 to 580 MW in 2007). This coming July 5-6, the company will host the first Salon International des Solutions Energétiques [International energy solution fair] whose lectures, workshops and thematic villages will aim to provide concrete solutions for today’s major economic, societal and environmental problems. And this past February, CARI broke ground near the fair site for a new 6000 square meter office complex (known as Les Eco-Lucioles [Micro-fireflies]) which will be completed in March 2008. This project, which has four main environmental aims in terms of construction, management, and the comfort and well-being of its occupants, will allow for an approximately 50 percent reduction in tenants’ utility charges thanks to the energy conservation solutions that are being integrated into the building. Mr. Dao hopes that this project will inspire other developers to create “cities of lights” in the future.
There’s positive energy conservation news in the Cote d’Azur’s public sector as well. In March 2000 the Nice Cote d’Azur Chamber of Commerce and the Nice prefecture signed an environmental charter for the Nice airport that calls for air quality measures, noise reduction, water resources management, natural disaster prevention, water management and so on. And in the natural resource conservation domain, the Alpes-Maritimes region, which has virtually inexhaustible energy resources (wood and solar, to the tune of 5 kwh/square meters and 300 days of sunshine annually) became, at long last, the first French region to issue a tender for renewable energy projects at the semiautonomous region level. At the behest of Christian Estrosi, a top development official in the Alpes-Maritimes region, the project aims to promote the realization of solar power installations on public buildings over the next decade. Projects will be selected by a committee comprising (among others) experts from Enerplan, ADEME, EDF, and the Association of Cote d’Azur Architects, and will be granted between 20 and 80 percent co-financing. Thus by the end of this year, the Alpes-Maritimes region will have 1000 square meters of solar panels in operation.
The region has also set its sights on developing its other abundant natural resource, namely biomass, for the transport sector, via projects that are approved by the competitive clusters CapEnergies and IAR, as well as European projects developed by research teams at the Sophia Antipolis and Marseilles technology parks. Hence numerous fields of investigation have opened up over the past 15 years, but the results have been mixed.

Which bioenergy solutions should be prioritized ?

Bioenergy has attracted a great deal of interest by virtue of its potential socioeconomic and energy benefits. Biomass conversion technologies fall into two categories: energy generation, and the production of auto fuels.
The primary field of investigation aimed at generating heat and power using biomass is the production of methane from wood residue or via biomass gasification at 850 °C. In the latter case, the methane is fed into natural gas networks or used as auto fuel. This procedure has been employed successfully by the European Center for Renewable Energy Güssing and the Guntamatic association in Austria. The latter markets its Biostar pellet boiler, which produces a high energy yield and allows for extremely efficient residue management. Dalkia, a Veolia Environnement and EDF affiliate and European energy and environmental optimization market leader, is currently testing the performance of an EKO power plant and primary heat generation network plant in Kolin, Czech Republic, with a view to building the same type of facility in France (in January of this year Dalkia acquired a 90 percent stake in EKO).
The advantages of wood energy are its abundance; its ready availability; and the fact that development of this resource creates jobs, helps to reduce carbon emissions, and contributes to forest upkeep. France has abundant forest resources: one out of every three French municipalities owns a forest. The country has 11,000 municipal forests amounting to over 6,400,000 acres – the equivalent of nearly 50 million cubic meters of useable forest biomass annually. Initiated in June 2006 for a six year period by the National Federation of Municipal Forestry Workers ((FNCofor), the program, which is called “1000 boiler rooms in the rural environment” and is part of the Climate plan, the project aims to publicize and promote ADEME’s wood energy program. The project will also create or preserve 400-600 jobs, will result in energy savings amounting to 200,000 tons equivalent petrol (TEP) and will save 450,000 tons of CO2 emissions.
The project’s secondary focus is on promoting the use of biofuels for passenger cars, which is by far the most serious problem we face in terms of environmental pollution and reducing consumption.

Fuel cells: still in their infancy

In 1994 the mining school at Ecole des Mines de Paris à Sophia Antipolis participated in the European Joule II program (part of the Fever program) under the aegis of a consortium consisting of Renault, ARMINES/Ecole des Mines de Paris, Air Liquide, De Nora Permelec, Ansaldo, and Volvo United Turbines. “The work realized by the teams centered around hydrogen, fuel cells, and new ways of storing energy using electrochemical technology,” noted EMP research team director Patrick Achard. “The goal was to develop zero emissions electric passenger cars that can travel long distances without recharging and are powered by fuel cells and stored liquid hydrogen.” Fuel cells generate energy by transforming chemical energy into electricity via oxidation of a fuel electrode such as hydrogen, while at the same time an oxidant is broken down at a second electrode comprising ambient oxygen. The most commonly used fuel cell is the dihydrogen-oxygen fuel cell (commonly known as the hydrogen fuel cell) in which hydrogen oxidation is accelerated by a catalyzer (usually platinum). But the problem is that platinum is far too expensive, and the large amounts needed up until 2006 to make fuel cells constitutes a disincentive for the pursuit of further experimental applications. Another major obstacle to development of hydrogen fuel cells is the hydrogen supply itself, and supplying passenger cars with the required hydrogen fuel. Moreover, hydrogen production necessitates the use of fossil fuel, or the availability of low cost energy, in order to obtain hydrogen from the breakdown of water via a thermal or electrochemical process. A third constraint is that hydrogen is too bulky to store either as compressed gas or a liquid. A fourth problem, pointed out by Patrick Achard, is that “the batteries don’t age well. They weaken over time after undergoing numerous cycles.” All of these obstacles prompted Renault to drop out of the project, leaving its Japanese partner Nissan to take up the slack. The latter unveiled its latest generation fuel cell prototype at a 2006 international symposium on hydrogen energy in Lyon.
Some more adventurous auto industry players such as Michelin, PSA, Toyota, DaimlerChrysler and General Motors (which unveiled its Hydrogen 3 in 2004 and its Sequel in 2005, both of which are powered by a 73 kW hydrogen fuel cell that runs on compressed bottled dihydrogen gas at 700 bar) are still conducting research on hydrogen power. At the same time, all automakers are currently putting more effort into hybrid vehicles, which have far shorter development cycles. In order for these vehicles to be a viable option, efforts must be made to establish a hydrogen supply infrastructure for busses and demonstration vehicles. The investigations are still in their infancy. However, two pilot projects that were launched in 2004 are worthy of mention: (1) The Daimler-Chrysler project in Michigan and the attendant demonstration delivery vehicles that are powered by a hydrogen fuel cell; the vehicles tank up on hydrogen at a service station that was specially built by Air Products. (2) The Munich airport’s Man busses which are powered by hydrogen gas stored at 350 bar. This system reduces fuel consumption by generating and storing electricity when the car brakes. However the feasibility of deploying such systems on a mass basis is undermined by the very small overall amount of energy produced by these operations. And unfortunately, in the absence of the requisite fuel distribution infrastructures (service stations and storage facilities) at the European level, rapid development of this sector is a highly unlikely prospect. “There will be no revolutionary change in this domain over the next 15 years,” predicts Mr. Achard. “We are currently elaborating and testing more compact fuel cell prototypes for a range of application domains, namely telecommunication networks, heavy industry, construction, isolated locations, and portable devices such as mobile phones and walkmans.”

Biofuel : a revolution in the making

There are two types of biofuel: biodiesel and bioethanol. Biodiesel (or methylic ester of vegetable oil) which is made from plants such as colza and sunflowers, can either be used alone mixed with diesel fuel. It is sold under the brand name Diester (“diesel” + “ester”). Bioethanol is made by distilling the sugar found in beets, or grains such as wheat and barley, or in corn or fruit (usually via wine alcohol). It can be used straight, or mixed with gasoline, or it can be converted into ETBE (ethyl tertio-butyl ether) which is composed of equal parts ethanol and the gasoline derivative isobutylene.
According to the European Biodiesel Board (EBB), biodiesel was the number one biofuel in the EU in 2006, with 3,184,000 tons accounting for 81.5 percent of EU biofuel production, up 43.5 percent from 2005. Germany maintained its leading position in this sector, with 61.3 percent production growth, which means that Germany accounts for 52.4 percent of EU biodiesel production. This spectacular market growth was spurred by a 100 percent tax exemption for biofuels used alone or in a mixture. As for French production, having declined after peaking in 2001, it has picked up again thanks to the government’s ambitious biofuel program, which was initiated in 2005 and aims to tripling production by 2007. Biofuels will also benefit from a partial reduction of the petroleum products tax. The French government expects to reach the statutory EU goals by 2008 and has promulgated a 7 percent biofuel incorporation rate (in motor vehicle fuel) for 2010 and 10 percent for 2015. Bioethanol remains in second place, accounting for 18.5 percent of EU biofuel production.
The 2006 petroleum tax reduction, which is beneficial for biofuels, has been changed and will henceforth be EUR 25/hl (down from EUR 33/hl in 2005) for biodiesel and EUR 33/hl for bioethanol that is destined for conversion to ETBE.
This is a welcome measure for French agricultural regions such as Beauce, Champagne-Ardenne and Picardie, which are increasingly counting on vegetable oil refineries to avoid EU agricultural quotas and maintain their independence. Since its inception in 2005, the Laon-based Industry and Agricultural Resources competitiveness cluster has obtained approval for a series of promising green chemistry projects, which will be realized by Pyrabio Energy +, Synthons, Acro-pole and Sofralab. Pyrabio Energy + specializes in bioethanol production in collaboration with the Tereos Group, which is France’s sugar market leader and the number two European provider in this sector. In 2006 Tereos began construction of a massive beet distillery in Aisne that will be supplied by beet growers in the Picardie and Champagne-Ardenne regions and will produce a projected 3 million hectoliters of beet vinasse. Synthons is developing a technology platform for new chemical intermediates derived from agricultural resources. Acro-pole and Sofralab are developing commercial applications for biofuel processing byproducts in the fine chemicals industry – Acro-pole for biodiesel and Sofralab via a specific vinification process for bioethanol.
“The cluster is promoting the realization of innovative projects in emerging markets: biofuels today, biomaterials and biocompounds tomorrow. We intend to become the European leader by 2015 in the total processing of plant materials,” Thierry Stadler, chief executive of the IAR cluster. “To be specific, we launched the first Ford Flex Fuel or “polyfuel” cars that are powered by E85. This 85/15 ethanol-gasoline biofuel, which the Ministry of Industry has approved on an experimental basis, reduces carbon emissions by more than 70 percent. We intend to have 5000 of these cars on the road in the Champagne-Ardenne and Picardie regions by 2008. As at January 1, 2007 we already had 450. We’re hoping that this Ford Flex Fuel program will enable us to catch up with Brazil, which is the leader in this domain, followed by the US, Sweden and Asia. The entire French agro industry is actively working toward the development of green energy. We plan to work on developing a second-generation fuel for general use over the course of 2007, and to establish a network of green pumps.” Persuaded though Mr. Stadler may be that the biological and particularly the thermochemical route is the way to go when it comes to replacing fossil fuels, he treads carefully where the viability of biofuels is concerned. “There are still a number of rivers to cross before biofuels come into their own and prevail at the European and global level. Over the next 10-15 years, we will be faced with the choice as to which fuel is the most practicable and profitable; and then there’s the environmental impact dimension to consider, the huge numbers of fuel pumps and service stations that will have to be realized; the implementation of a workable tax reduction policy, and more financing for chemical research and development so the bugs can be ironed out of the current pilot solutions. We will also need to inventory the energy potential of each country and establish an accurate world map of the various possible sources of supply.” In other words, a revolution in the making, one small step at a time, which promises to provide some truly remarkable solutions to the current energy crisis. But the question is: Will these solutions be able to make up for our shrinking petroleum reserves? The answer: it’s anyone’s guess.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Energy: the great challenge of the 21st century

By Philippe LEGER

The 27 Member States of the European Union have reached a compromise on renewable energy. At their meeting on March 8-9 in Brussels, the leaders concluded an agreement that defines a global objective of 20 percent “clean” energy use by 2020, and that requires 10 percent of all auto fuel to consist of biofuel. The Europeans intend to take on a three-pronged challenge in an unstable and dangerous world environment. Europeans has been preparing to face the inexorable oil crisis since 1990 and toward this end have been conducting international negotiations aimed at reducing gasoline emissions, particularly sulfur and carbon dioxide. During the European energy summit this past March in Brussels, EU leaders also made a commitment to cutting greenhouse gases 30 percent by 2020 “thus paving the way for bringing global warming under control,” according to WWF ecologists. According to the EU president German Chancellor Angela Merkel (Germany will be president of the EU until this June), the EU is a “pioneer” by virtue of its having implemented the Kyoto commitments ahead of the deadline.

Energy once again at center stage in the EU

The EU became acutely aware of the need for a Community energy policy as a result of the 1973 oil crisis when the OPEC nations quadrupled the price of oil. However it is also true that the EU’s founding treaties – the Treaty of Paris of 1951 and the Euratom treaty of 1957, which established the European Coal and Steel Community and European Atomic Energy Community respectively – also dealt with the issue of energy, albeit without devoting a separate Article to this subject.
The European Commission’s aim in encouraging a shift to an economy that is less dependent on oil is to make competition the handmaiden of the environment and to galvanize Europeans to pursue a major objective. And so, more than 50 years after the creation of the European Coal and Steel Community, energy is once again at center stage in Europe.

Just say “no” to energy wastage

Energy is becoming an increasingly pivotal resource which we simply have to stop wasting for starters. Toward this end, the European Commission has presented an energy efficiency action plan that aims to reduce by 100 billion euros the direct cost of energy consumption by 2029, and at the same reduce our carbon emissions by approximately 780 million tons per year. “Europeans have to learn how to save energy. Europe wastes more than 20 percent of the energy it consumes. By saving energy, Europe will help to resolve the problems associated with climate change, as well as rising consumption of and dependence on fossil fuels imported from third countries,” noted Energy Commissioner Andris Piebalgs. The EU is even seriously considering banning the sale of incandescent light bulbs – a 19th century technology 95 percent of whose electricity heats the air, and 5 percent of which generates light. This antiquated and highly inefficient technology will be replaced by electronic bulbs, which are three or four times more expensive but which use 80 percent less electricity and last five times longer than classic bulbs. Which means that the 490 million citizens of the EU will soon have to trade in their “Thomas Edison” models for bulbs that aren’t such power guzzlers. The European leaders also asked the European Commission to present proposals aimed at improving energy efficiency for office and street lighting by 2008. The deadline for cutting back on household energy use is 2009. In making this decision, the EU is following the example of Australia, which last year became the world’s first nation to ban the incandescent light bulb in three years. German Chancellor Angela Merkel is already ahead of the game – at least at home: “Most of the light bulbs in my apartment are energy saving light bulbs,” she said, although she also noted that they’re less efficient. “When I look for something on the floor I can’t always find it.” The present author has followed suit, but has opted for the latest generation electronic bulbs, which are more powerful but also more economic. And lo and behold, the most recent electric bill showed a negative amount.

A global challenge

The US is also taking up the energy challenge, despite its not having signed the Kyoto Accords. Although Americans have not yet vowed to ban energy waste, President Bush has nonetheless called for replacing 20 percent of US gasoline consumption with biofuels by 2017. The kickoff for this new era came this past March 9 in Brazil, with ethanol the main focus. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Brazil’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Celso Amorin signed an agreement on biofuel in Sao Paolo on March 9, which coincided with the meeting of European leaders in Brussels. And so now the world’s two largest biofuel producers, Brazil and the US, are about to sign a framework agreement that calls for joint development of biofuel refining techniques and universal standards. This is definitely a step in the right direction.

The sugar and oil “domains”

Biofuel is derived from biomass, which in turn is derived from plants (hence the nickname “green fuels”) and are not to be confused with biomass fuel. The former powers car engines, whereas the latter is used to produce heat.
The two main types of biofuel in production today are bioethanol and biodiesel. Bioethanol is made from agricultural crops and is used for gasoline engines in proportions ranging from 5-85 percent bioethanol to gasoline. More than 20 percent of car engines have to be modified in order to employ this type of fuel. Plants that contain sugar (e.g. beets and sugar cane) or starch (wheat, corn etc.) can be converted to bioethanol. The sugar is extracted via sugar fermentation in the case of plants containing sugar, or via distillation of the starch in the wheat or corn. Thus one can say that there is a sugar “domain,” whereas diesel engines are supplied from the “oil” domain via the conversion of vegetable oil or animal fat. A chemical process known as transesterification allows for the production of biodiesel or B100 (B20, B5, B2, etc.), which is trying to compete with raw vegetable oils and classic diesel. Biodiesel can be used alone or can be mixed with classic diesel fuel.
Sugar is by far the more advanced of the two domains in the world today, chiefly in Brazil, where bioethanol derived from sugar cane covers 22 percent of the country’s auto fuel needs, while in Sweden and the US more than 10 percent of all gasoline consists of 10 percent bioethanol (mainly derived from corn).

Micro-competitors

Biofuel derived from crop plants may soon be facing competition from microalgae – or maybe even from microbes. But these technological innovations are still in their infancy. According to Olivier Bernard, Research Director at the French technology development center INRIA Sophia Antipolis, “By subjecting certain species of microalgae to stress such as nitrogen deprivation or a sudden burst of light, we force them to produce cumulations of lipids amounting to up to 80 percent of their weight. Under these conditions, the per acre yield is 30 times greater than with terrestrial seed flax plants such as colza or sunflowers. Plus microalgae propagate far more quickly (their population doubles every 24 hours on average. Just try getting a field of colza to do that!). 3.75 acres in a pond yields 1-2 tons of microalgae per acre, even under poor climatic conditions. This is the great advantage of microalgae, when you realize that you’d need the entire surface area of France to produce enough plant-derived biofuel to run all of our cars.”
Another advantage of growing microalgae is that they consume nitrogen, phosphates and carbonic gas – i.e. the infamous CO2 that is wreaking havoc with the world’s climate. The research program, which began in December 2006 and is under Mr. Bernard’s direction, has an annual budget of EUR 2.8 million through 2009 and has a number of participating institutions: INRIA, the elite French research institute, CNRS, France’s Atomic Energy Agency, various universities, France’s Center for International Cooperation on Atomic Research for Development, the French oceanographic institute Ifremer, and a private sector provider (Valcobio).

A European “first” in Seyne-sur-Mer

Renewable energy has set off a frenzy of research and investment throughout the world, for both biofuels and biomass fuels. Tens of billions of dollars or euros are spent each year on private sector investments in wind power, solar panels, and low carbon energy. France’s PACA region is the scene of some highly successful projects in this domain, such as one in the coastal city of Seyne-sur-Mer that will use seawater to heat and air condition new public buildings and apartment buildings. This city of 61,000 inhabitants has reconverted old shipyards with a view to finding an energy resource that is both free of charge and renewable – seawater, a “clean” energy source that has been largely ignored up till now.
“This is the first time an EU project that uses seawater has been realized on such a large scale (60,000 square meters),” says Phillipe Nunes, director of the Monaco-based engineering company Ingetec, which was the Seyne-sur-Mer’s consultant for the project. “The installation will capture calories and frigories from seawater using three thermodynamic exchangers and a heat pump system, with a view to providing heat or cold depending on the season in a fresh water system in the buildings that circulates in a loop.” The system will initially supply a convention center and a 500 seat theatre, as well as 500 apartments that are slated for construction. The city plans to extend the system to older public buildings such as the city hall and will also be encouraging real estate promoters to tap into the system.

Facing the grave challenges of the 21st century

All of the world’s countries must face the energy challenge – a formidable and unprecedented crisis that is attributable to increased dependence on oil imports, as well as climate change induced by the greenhouse effect. Today, the US and Russia wage wars to expropriate strategic raw materials and control their transport modalities. The conflict – still at the intimidation stage – between China and its South China Sea neighbors over the sovereignty of the Spratly islands is actually a proxy struggle over petroleum resources. The more money we spend on military conflict, the less is available to realize the investments we need in order to reduce our dependence on cheap oil and to begin weaning ourselves away from fossil fuels. Spending money on waging war will do nothing to alter the fact that in less than one generation, the world will be facing very serious problems. The rising cost of raw materials on the world market is merely a reflection of the overall trend of today’s overpopulated world that is all too eager to hop aboard the consumer society bandwagon.
This evolution has taken on dizzyingly spectacular proportions in China, where oil consumption has been rising 15 percent per year since 2001 (China was a net exporter of petroleum until 1992). The country has become the world’s second largest oil user and has made key investments in the world’s oil producing regions. China has also constructed an oil pipeline that traverses the country and extends to Central Asia, where it is realizing massive investments in new oilfields. China is also plowing oil resource cash into and in Iran and Latin America, particularly Venezuela, as well as in various countries in Africa, which was heretofore Western turf. These investments enable China to access the petroleum resources it needs to maintain double digit economic growth. There’s nothing surprising about the sharp rise in raw material prices on the world market. The oil price increase should alert us to the threat that we are now facing, which is not of a political nature as was the case with OPEC in the 1970s and 1980s. Whereas demand is growing steadily, with no end in sight, world petroleum production will begin taper off in a few years. The acute crisis this structural petroleum famine will induce is unavoidable. The question is: How can it be surmounted? What kind of energy resources will allow us to do this? The idea of a country like China – currently the world’s leading producer and consumer of coal – using its huge coal resources flat out to sustain its growth is simply terrifying. And lest we forget: China is not a signatory to the Kyoto Accords. Nor for that matter is the US, which is the world’s second largest coal producer.
After a dip in production from 1996-1999, China’s coal production took off again, big time. This resource already accounts for 68 percent of its primary energy use (world average: 26 percent); 80 percent of China’s electricity was coal generated in 2003. The massive use of coal is a major problem owing to the pollution it produces. China is also the world’s leading producer of sulfur dioxide emissions, which is the main cause of acid rain, a phenomenon that affects 30 percent of China’s territory. Some 75 to 80 percent of China’s carbon emissions result from coal combustion, and 50 percent of this is attributable to the thermal power plants China relies so heavily on for electricity. However, in the long run pollution from coal combustion may seriously jeopardize the health of the Chinese economy. Thus Chinese officials are showing an increasing interest in low-emission technologies such as the fluidized beds, a technology developed by Alsthom that will be used in a pilot project involving the construction of a 300 MW thermal power plant in Baima (Sichuan province); this contract amounts to 65 million euros.

This clearly shows that solutions are in fact available and that education, innovation, cooperation and international exchanges could enable humanity to surmount the challenges of the 21st century.