Fueling the World

Worldwide, 430 nuclear plants generate about 17% of all electricity. In France, nuclear s share is 79% in Japan it is 28%. Whereas there has not been a new nuclear plant ordered in the United States since 1978, there were 24 nuclear power plants worldwide under construction in 2005 (ElA 2006c). Many countries have ambitious plans to build more plants. China, with just nine plants currently in operation, plans on building as many as 25 new plants by 2025. Given the potential size of the Chinese market, reactor vendors from several countries are actively pursuing Chinese contracts, with the hope that China will use their designs for future plants. 

The newly enacted financial incentives for nuclear power in the United States will improve the overall economic viability of nuclear power. Whether new plants will be built still may hinge on other factors, including public attitudes toward nuclear power, the disposition of nuclear waste, and the overall regulatory environment. 

Despite this growth, nuclear energy s share in the world electricity market is expected to remain fairly constant in the next couple decades due to remaining uncertainties, whether real or perceived, about the safety of nuclear and the handling of nuclear waste. 

Figiire 2.4. Nominal versus real crude oil prices, 1949-2005. 

Utilities actively hedge natural gas prices and/or have long-term contracts, which somewhat mitigates the impact of fast rising natural gas prices. 

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However, despite all the stress around the development of new alternatives to fossil fuels, the world is not at all running out of oil. In fact, and in parallel to the sustainability dilemma, we are confronted with the challenge of economic definitions and harmonization of concepts given the uncertainty that surrounds the definition of remaining reserves , reinforced by the lack of data to support better estimations. Consequently, as observed by Mitchell et al. (2001) there is a definitional problem since remaining reserves means the quantity of in-place resources that can be recovered economically, and this is far from a consensus around the world. 

Of Greenhouses and Freezers (39) Fueling the World (40) Chlorine Sunrise (41)... 

While current energy consumption depends primarily on fossil fuels, the world cannot rely on them forever. We eventually will be constrained by resources. Reserve estimates and corresponding reserve-to-production (R P) ratios, defined as the number of years reserves will last at current production levels, are summarized in Table 1.1. 

Figure 1-20). These inventions and innovations are more than just conveniences and entertainment. They have fueled the world s economy and provided the way of life that we are accustomed to living. 

All these fuel gases contain more than 50 % hydrogen and 10-30% methane, the other main components being CO, higher hydrocarbons, CO2 and Nj. In many parts of the world natural gas of calorific value of approximately 38MJ/m has become the widely-used gaseous fuel. 

In every part of the world, the same type of classification as above is found for fuels premium or regular, with or without lead. The octane numbers can be different from one country to another depending on the extent of development of their car populations and the capabilities of their local refining industries. The elimination of lead is becoming the rule wherever there are large automobile populations and severe anti-pollution requirements. Thus the United States, Japan and Canada no longer distribute leaded fuels. (... 

There is finally another type of jet fuel somewhat heavier and less volatile than TRO, which allows safe storage on aircraft carriers. This is the TR5 or JP5. Among these products, TRO or Jet Al have the most widespread acceptance because they are used for almost all the world s civil aviation fleet. The information that follows will concern essentially TRO, and very rarely TR4. 

The idea of clean motor and heating fuels, that is, those having an improved impact on the environment, has been developing since the beginning of the 1980s, first in the United States. It has since then appeared in Europe and will most certainly have its impact in the rest of the world beyond the year 2000. 

Dedicated Vehicles. Only Brazil and California have continued implementing alcohols in the transportation sector. The BraziUan program, the largest alternative fuel program in the world, used about 7.5% of oil equivalent of ethanol in 1987 (equivalent to 150,000 bbl of cmde oil per day). In 1987 about 4 million vehicles operated on 100% ethanol and 94% of all new vehicles purchased that year were ethanol-fueled. About 25% of Brazil s light-duty vehicle fleet (10) operate on alcohol. The leading BraziUan OEMs are Autolatina (a joint venture of Volkswagen and Ford), GM, and Fiat. Vehicles are manufactured and marketed in Brazil. 

The first methanol bus in the world was placed in revenue service in Auckland, New Zealand in June 1981. It was a Mercedes O 305 city bus using the M 407 hGO methanol engine. This vehicle operated in revenue service for several years with mixed results. Fuel economy on an equivalent energy basis ranged from 6 to 17% mote than diesel fuel economy. Power and torque matched the diesel engine and drivers could not detect a difference. ReHabiUty and durabihty of components was a problem. Additional demonstrations took place in Berlin, Germany and in Pretoria, South Africa, both in 1982. 

X 10 Btu/short ton), the solar energy trapped in 17.9 x 10 t of biomass, or about 8 x 10 t of biomass carbon, would be equivalent to the world s fossil fuel consumption in 1990 of 286 x 10 J. It is estimated that 77 x 10 t of carbon, or 171 x 10 t of biomass equivalent, most of it wild and not controlled, is fixed on the earth each year. Biomass should therefore be considered as a raw material for conversion to large suppHes of renewable substitute fossil fuels. Under controlled conditions dedicated biomass crops could be grown specifically for energy appHcations. 

Coal, tar, and heavy oil fuel reserves are widely distributed throughout the world. In the Western hemisphere, Canada has large tar sand, bitumen (very heavy cmde oil), and coal deposits. The United States has very large reserves of coal and shale. Coal comprises ca 85% of the U.S. recoverable fossil energy reserves (6). Venezuela has an enormous bitumen deposit and Brazil has significant oil shale (qv) reserves. Coal is also found in Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, and Pern. Worldwide, the total resource base of these reserves is immense and may constitute >90% of the hydrocarbon resources in place (see... 

The market value of natural gas Hquids is highly volatile and historically has been weakly related to the world price of cmde oil. During the 1980s, the market value of natural gas Hquids ranged from approximately 60% of the price of cmde to 73% (12). In this 10-year interval, several fluctuations occurred in the natural gas Hquid market. Because of the variabiHty of the natural gas Hquid market, the NGL recovery plants need to have flexibiHty. Natural gas Hquid products compete in the following markets ethane propane a Hquefted petroleum gas (LPG) a C-3/C-4 mix and / -butane all compete as petrochemical feedstocks. Propane and LPG are also used as industrial and domestic fuels, whereas 2-butane and natural gasoline, consisting of C-5 and heavier hydrocarbons, are used as refinery feedstocks. 

The most common method of converting iron ore to metallic iron utilizes a blast furnace wherein the material is melted to form hot metal (pig iron). Approximately 96% of the world s iron is produced this way (see Iron). However, in the blast furnace process energy costs are relatively high, pollution problems of associated equipment are quite severe, and capital investment requirements are often prohibitively expensive. In comparison to the blast furnace method, direct reduction permits a wider choice of fuels, is environmentally clean, and requires a much lower capital investment. 

The Calcimatic is a patented kiln of Canadian origin that is radically different from other kiln types. It consists of a circular traveling hearth of variable speed, supported on two concentric tiers of rollers. Kiln feed of 12.7 mm is fed onto the hearth in a 2.5—10 cm bed from a preheater chamber. The kiln is usually fired with natural gas or fuel oil, although the option of using pulverized coal has also been developed. After great interest, resulting in sales of many units throughout the world, the popularity of the Calcimatic has ebbed because of disappointment in the unit s mediocre thermal efficiency. 

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