Scarce fossil resources

Economic Issues (Profit). It is obvious that if scarce nonrenewable resources such as fossil fuels and rich metal ores are going to be depleted, prices will become extremely high. Therefore, economics is very important in sustainable development. This is also true for the feasibility of sustainability concepts If they are not profitable, then they will not be accepted. However, it is very important to think over the meaning of the term profitability. Indeed, if external costs are taken into account, sustainable technology will be more profitable in the long term than conventional technology. 

The US steel industry is very large and consumes large quantities of energy. It uses 35% of this energy in the form of electricity, fuel oil, or natural gas the balance is coal. Therefore, the supply of the noncoal energy by an MHR can conserve scarce fossil fuel resources. 

Economy/profit Scarce resource depletion Drinking water resource depletion Fossil fuel depletion External (future) cost low Capital expenditure Operational cost Profitable over total lifecycle... 

Economy/profit Scarce resource depletion Drinking water resource depletion Fossil fuel depletion External (future) cost low Lower capital expenditure Lower operational cost Profitable over total lifecycle To be assessed for each case Not identified yet Yes improvement factor > 4 Yes Yes factor > 4 Yes factor > 4 Likely... 

Nonrenewahle resources include the abundant metals (such as iron and aluminum), scarce metals (gold and copper), materials used for energy (fossil fuels and uranium minerals), building materials (limestone, crushed stone, sand, and gravel), and other miscellaneous minerals (halite or natural salt). Running water, wind power, and solar power are not included among materials used for energy because they are renewable sources. 

The mineral resources discovered by economic geologists are used by industries to produce the abundant metals, the scarce metals, fossil fuels, and other natural materials. Economic geologists are not directly concerned with the use of these materials, but they must be aware of the demand for these materials so that they know the amount of money that a company may receive for them. 

Finally, it should be noted that biofuels can be severely pollutant as their productions involves not only the emission of GHG, but also formaldehyde, acetaldehyde, and other aldehydes deriving firom alcohol oxidation and combustion. The production of a more sustainable biofuel is currentiy imdergoing a certification scheme elaboration phase, which will hopefully result in more sustainable resources (Mata et al., 2013 Devisscher, 2007). However, the need to comply with strict and onerous certification systems may reduce even further the already scarce competitiveness of biofuels with respect to fossil fuels. These aspects will be addressed in the following section where we closely look at legislatives and regulatory issues. 

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