Water Crisis

জ্বালানি সংকট সত্ত্বেও কয়লা ব্যবহারের তেমন কোন উদ্যোগ নেই সরকারের। কয়লার বিশাল মজুদ রয়েছে অথচ জ্বালানি সংকটে দুর্ভোগ পোহাচ্ছে সাধারণ মানুষে। সরকারের কার্যকর উদ্যোগের অভাব এবং সিদ্ধান্তহীনতা দেশে এই সংকট তৈরি করেছে। এখনই উদ্যোগী না হলে ভবিষ্যতে সংকট বাড়বে। দেশীয় জ্বালানি ব্যবহার না করায় মানুষের জীবনযাত্রার খরচ বাড়ছে। বেশি বেশি জ্বালানি তেল আমদানি করতে হচ্ছে। আমদানি করা জ্বালানির উপর নির্ভরতার কারণে জ্বালানি নিরাপত্তা ঝুঁকিও বাড়ছে। জনসংখ্যা বাড়ার সাথে সাথে যেভাবে চাহিদা বাড়ছে তাতে করে দীর্ঘ মেয়াদী পরিকল্পনা করে গ্যাসের বিকল্প জ্বালানি নিশ্চিত করার পরামর্শ দিয়েছেন বিশেষজ্ঞরা। জ্বালানি বিশেষজ্ঞ অধ্যাপক নূরুল ইসলাম ইত্তেফাককে বলেন, দেশে গ্যাসের ঘাটতি আছে। যা গ্যাস আছে তা হয়তো আরো কিছু তোলা যাবে। কিন্তু সেটা বিষয় নয়। দেশের উন্নতির জন্য জ্বালানি লাগবে। আমাদের জানা বিকল্প জ্বালানির মধ্যে আছে কয়লা। কয়লার ব্যবহার বাড়ানো যেতে পারে। জ্বালানি নিয়ে নিশ্চিত হতে গেলে কয়লার ব্যবহার বাড়াতে হবে। বাংলাদেশে যে কয়লা মজুদ আছে তা দিয়ে ১০ শতাংশ প্রবৃদ্ধিসহ ৫০ বছর জ্বালানি চাহিদা মেটানো সম্ভব। বর্তমানে জ্বালানি সম্পদের মধ্যে প্রাকৃতিক গ্যাস অন্যতম। বাণিজ্যিক জ্বালানি চাহিদার প্রায় ৭৩ শতাংশ প্রাকৃতিক গ্যাস পূরণ করে। অন্যদিকে উৎপাদিত গ্যাসের প্রায় ৫০ শতাংশ বিদ্যুৎ ও প্রায় ১২ শতাংশ সার উৎপাদনে ব্যবহার হয়। দেশের প্রায় ৯০ শতাংশ বিদ্যুৎ উৎপাদন গ্যাসের উপর নির্ভরশীল। বর্তমানে জ্বালানি তেলের পুরাটা আমদানি করতে হয়। গ্যাসও ফুরিয়ে যাচ্ছে। আগামী ৫০ বছরে দেশে ৬৩ ট্রিলিয়ন ঘনফুট (টিসিএফ) গ্যাসের প্রয়োজন হবে। বর্তমানে প্রমাণিত গ্যাস আছে প্রায় সাত টিসিএফ। কিছু দিন পরে গ্রামে রান্নার জন্য জ্বালানি কাঠেরও সংকট দেখা হবে। দেশের মোট অভ্যন্তরীণ উৎপাদন (জিডিপি) বৃদ্ধির হার ৭ শতাংশ বা তার চেয়ে বেশি হলে ২০২৫ সাল পর্যন্ত কমপক্ষে ২৬ টিসিএফ অতিরিক্ত গ্যাসের প্রয়োজন হবে। যা আনুপাতিক হিসাবে প্রায় এক হাজার মিলিয়ন বা ১০০ কোটি টন কয়লার সমান। এ অবস্থায় দেশে উৎপাদিত সার, সিএনজি, আবাসিক জ্বালানি এবং বিদ্যুৎ কেন্দ্রে দীর্ঘমেয়াদে গ্যাস সরবরাহ নিশ্চিত করার জন্য গ্যাস সংরক্ষণ করা প্রয়োজন। দীর্ঘমেয়াদে জ্বালানি নিরাপত্তা নিশ্চিত করতে বিদ্যুৎসহ অন্যান্য খাতে গ্যাসের ব্যবহার কমিয়ে কয়লার ব্যবহার বাড়ানো উচিত। কয়লানীতি পর্যালোচনা কমিটি সরকারকে কয়েক বছর আগে গ্যাসের ব্যবহার কমানোর পরামর্শ দিয়েছে। বাংলাদেশে কয়লানীতি নেই। নীতি চূড়ান্ত করেই সে আলোকে কয়লা ব্যবহার করা হবে বলে সরকার ইতোমধ্যে ঘোষণা দিয়েছে। কিন্তু গত কয়েক সরকার চেষ্টা করেও কয়লানীতি করতে পারেনি। খসড়ানীতি পর্যালোচনা করার জন্য কয়েকবার কমিটি করা হয়েছে। তাদের সুপারিশ বাস্তবায়ন করা হয়নি। বর্তমান সরকার এসেও প্রথমে কয়লানীতি আবার পর্যালোচনা করা হবে বলে ঘোষণা দিয়েছে। কিন্তু এখনো এ বিষয়ে কোন উদ্যোগ নেয়া হয়নি। গত সপ্তাহে অর্থমন্ত্রী নিজে জ্বালানি বিভাগকে কয়লানীতি দ্রুত চূড়ান্ত করার নির্দেশ দিয়েছেন। নিজস্ব কয়লা থাকা সত্ত্বেও সরকার আমদানি করা কয়লানির্ভর বিদ্যুৎ কেন্দ্র স্থাপনের উদ্যোগ নিয়েছে। এতে করে বিদ্যুৎ উৎপাদন খরচ বাড়বে। আর বিদ্যুৎ উৎপাদন খরচ বাড়লে সাধারণ গ্রাহককে বাড়তি মূল্য শোধ করতে হবে। প্রতিবছর বাড়বে বিদ্যুতের দাম। একই অবস্থা হবে আমদানি করা জ্বালানি তেল দিয়ে বিদ্যুৎ উৎপাদন বাড়ালে। এখনই জ্বালানি তেলের দাম শোধ করতে বিদ্যুৎ উন্নয়ন বোর্ডকে (পিডিবি) মোটা অংকের ভর্তুকি গুনতে হচ্ছে। গ্যাস না থাকলেও কয়লার মজুদ আছে। আবিষ্কৃত কয়লা ক্ষেত্র আছে পাঁচটি। এরমধ্যে একটি থেকে কয়লা তোলা হচ্ছে। তাও এই কয়লা পুরোপুরি অর্থনৈতিকভাবে কাজে লাগানো যাচ্ছে না। দেশের কয়লা পুরোপুরি ব্যবহার করতে না পারলেও গত বছর কয়লা আমদানির উদ্যোগ নিয়েছিল বাণিজ্য মন্ত্রণালয়। যদিও পরে এই উদ্যোগ বাতিল করা হয়। দেশের একমাত্র বড়পুকুরিয়া কয়লা খনির উপর ভিত্তি করে ২৫০ মেগাওয়াট বিদ্যুৎ কেন্দ্র স্থাপন করা হয়েছে। যদিও বছরের বেশিরভাগ সময় সে বিদ্যুৎ কেন্দ্র বিকল থাকায় গড়ে ১২৫ মেগাওয়াট বিদ্যুৎও ঠিকমতো উৎপাদন হয় না। বড়পুকুরিয়ার কয়লা দিয়ে আরো বেশি বিদ্যুৎ উৎপাদন সম্ভব। কিন্তু সে বিষয়েও কোন সিদ্ধান্ত নেয়া হচ্ছে না বলে সংশ্লিষ্টরা জানিয়েছেন। বড়পুকুরিয়া কয়লা ক্ষেত্র থেকে গত মাসেও একদিনে পাঁচ হাজার টন কয়লা তোলা হয়েছে। বাংলাদেশের উত্তর-পশ্চিম অঞ্চলে এ পর্যন্ত আবিষ্কার হওয়া বড়পুকুরিয়া, খালাশপীর, ফুলবাড়ি, জামালগঞ্জ ও দীঘিপাড়া এই পাঁচটি ক্ষেত্রে মজুদ আছে দুই হাজার ২২১ মিলিয়ন বা ২০২ কোটি টন কয়লা। জামালগঞ্জের গভীরতা বেশি বলে সেখান থেকে কয়লা তোলা সম্ভব নয়। জামালগঞ্জ বাদে অন্য চারটিতে মজুদ আছে এক হাজার ১৬৮ মিলিয়ন টন। সম্প্রতি জামালগঞ্জের কয়লা খনিতেই গ্যাসে রূপান্তর করে তোলা যায় কিনা তা পরীক্ষা করা হচ্ছে। বড়পুকুরিয়া (দিনাজপুর) ১১৮-৫০৯ মিটার গভীরে প্রমাণিত ৩০৩ টন কয়লা মজুদ আছে। সম্ভাব্য ও প্রমাণিত মজুদ আছে ৩৯০ টন। বার্ষিক ১০ লাখ টন কয়লা তোলার লক্ষ্য নিয়ে এই খনি থেকে এখন কয়লা তোলা হচ্ছে। খালাশপীর (রংপুর) খনিতে ২৫৭ থেকে ৪৮৩ মিটার গভীরে কয়লা আছে। এখানে মোট মজুদ ৬৮৫ টন। ফুলবাড়ি (দিনাজপুর) খনির গভীরতা ১৫০ থেকে ২৪০ মিটার। মজুদ ৫৭২ টন। জামালগঞ্জ (জয়পুরহাট) ৬৪০ থেকে ১১৫৮ মিটার গভীরে মজুদ আছে এক হাজার ৫৩ টন। দীঘিপাড়া (দিনাজপুর) খনির ৩২৮ থেকে ৪০৭ মিটার নিচে আছে মোট ৬০০ টন কয়লা। বিদ্যুৎ, সার, সিএনজি, কলকারখানা, বাণিজ্যিক ও আবাসিক প্রয়োজনে প্রতিদিন ২৩০ কোটি ঘনফুট গ্যাস প্রয়োজন। কিন্তু সরবরাহ করা হচ্ছে গড়ে ১৯৬ কোটি ঘনফুট। এরমধ্যে জাতীয় প্রতিষ্ঠানগুলো থেকে উত্তোলন করা হচ্ছে ৯২ কোটি ঘনফুট এবং বিদেশী কোম্পানি উত্তোলন করছে ১০৪ কোটি ঘনফুট গ্যাস। যথাসময়ে যথাযথ উদ্যোগের অভাবে ২০০৮ সাল থেকে তীব্র গ্যাস সংকট শুরু হয়। বর্তমান প্রমাণিত গ্যাস মজুদ দিয়ে ২০১১ সাল পর্যন্ত চলবে। তবে সম্ভাব্য মজুদ দিয়ে আরো চার বছর চালানো যাবে। অর্থাৎ ২০১৫ সাল পর্যন্ত গ্রাহকদের ঠিকমতো গ্যাস দিতে পারবে পেট্রোবাংলা। তবে দেশের অর্থনৈতিক প্রবৃদ্ধি যদি শুধু গ্যাসের উপর নির্ভর হয়। এবং সেই অনুযায়ী যদি নতুন নতুন গ্যাস সংযোগ দেয়া হয় তবে ২০১৫ পর্যন্তও চলবে না। প্রমাণিত ১৫ টিসিএফ গ্যাসের মধ্যে ২০০৯ সালের জুন পর্যন্ত ৮ দশমিক ৩৭ টিসিএফ গ্যাস তোলা হয়েছে।

Source: http://ittefaq.com.bd/content/2010/04/05/news0052.htm

Sixteen hours of power cut is a regular phenomena in Bangladesh

World Bank sources said this embargo on the German company in Bangladesh has come as part of global embargo on the Siemens following litigation in Russia between the two.
In the letter the World Bank also asked all the agencies to refrain from accepting any offer from any bidders or any suppliers who would supply the Siemens’s equipment for any project that would be financed by the bank.
The World Bank also gave a guideline to the project-implementing agencies to follow in dealing with Siemens-related issues and warned them that if its guideline is ignored by them, the funding agency would not finance the project, or suspend the project financing.
But, despite this harsh binding edict, the Electricity Generation Company of Bangladesh (EGCB) accepted offers from different bidders which quoted the Siemens machine for its 300-MW peaking plant project.
EGCB, however, received tenders for the project on April 30, 2009 while the World Bank issued the letter later on July 29.
But, sources said, receiving such a tough letter, the EGCB got huge time to evaluate the bids. But its officials did not care to communicate the issue to the World Bank–or take any instruction on the issue.
The tender-evaluation committee (TEC) of the EGCB turned a deaf ear to the World Bank”s guideline and made responsive those bidders who quoted the Siemens” equipment for the project. It was learnt that most of the bidders quoted the Siemens equipment for the project.
But, when the tender-evaluation report (TER) was sent to the World Bank in November 2, 2009 for its approval, the Washington-based development-financing bank found such a lapse in the bidding process as the TEC ignored its forbidding in the bidding process.
Because, sources said, a number of bidders quoted the Siemens equipment and the TEC made them responsive instead of rejecting their offers.
In addition, according to them, the World Bank detected some other deviations that the tendering committee allegedly overlooked.
Now, the World Bank asked the EGCB officials to clarify the matters as to why it made offers of the bidders responsive who quoted the Siemens”s machine for the project.
The WB in its letter on December 15, 2009 said: “EGCB should treat the bids that include Siemens gas turbine generating units as per Bank”s letter to the government of July 29, on the settlement of agreement between the Bank and Siemens.”
It added: “The terms of agreement as stated in the letter, including item (ii), are self-explanatory. A contract which would include Siemens as a manufacturer cannot be financed by the Bank irrespective of the responsiveness or compliance (or not) of the corresponding bid as per the provisions of the Bidding Documents”.
As such, sources apprehend that on the ground of failure to follow the World Bank”s guideline, the multilateral funding agency may either withdraw its funds from the project or ask the EGCB to go for tendering over again.
If so happens, then the EGCB will have to start its tendering process anew which will put the total project implementation on the backburner. Even, it may take one year more to invite a re-tender and pick up a contractor for the project.
As per government plan, the Siddhirganj peaking plant is supposed to be completed by 2012.

Critics blamed inefficiencies of Petrobangla management for the hardship. Sometimes, self-contradictory position by some members of the staff of the state-run petroleum corporation is learnt to be a major bottleneck hindering its progress.
According to official sources, gas production remained almost same after one year of assumption of office by the Awami League government.
Last January, when the Awami League government took over, the country’s daily gas production was between 1800 and 1900 million cubic feet per day (MMCFD).
After the completion of its one year in power, the gas production remained the same as it was before. On January 6, 2009, the country produced 1,968 MMCFD. The only increase was about 70MMCFD gas that came from Jalalabad and Moulvibazar gas fields after installation of a spur line.
Apart from this, there has been no mentionable production enhancement in the Petrobangla-operated gas fields.
The Petrobangla’s failure in increasing gas production leads to problem for the country’s power sector as it largely depends on gas supply.
Because, sources said, country’s 86 percent of power plants are gas-based. Last year, the Power Development Board (PDB) had to suspend operation of a huge number of its generation units having a total of 700-MW production capacity on account of gas shortages.

“The situation may aggravate further this year as gas demand rises further, but production remains same,” said one Petrobangla official.
Already, gas consumers in many areas of Dhaka city and suburbs are experiencing serious crisis that forced them to use alternative fuel instead of gas for cocking.
The largest gas-distribution company, Titas, is going to introduce gas rationing for its consumers.
Official sources said the Petrobangla had taken a huge programme for augmenting gas production in different gas fields under a short-term recipe supposed to be completed by December 2009 and also under another mid-term plan (2009-2011).
Under the short-term programme, completion of drilling of at least five wells was targeted by December 2009. These are Bakhrabad well No-2 and 5, Titas well No-14, Meghna well and one well at Feni gas field.
It was said by the Petrobangla that if these wells were drilled, this would lead to augmentation of 100-MMCFD gas into the national gas network.
But most of the works remained undone as per the schedule under the plan.
Similarly, under the mid-term plan, the drilling of 5 appraisal and development wells, work-over of 4 wells, and drilling 4 wells in different fields by the BAPEX were targeted.

Researchers have been looking for such a material for a long time, taking a cue from plants, which use atmospheric carbon dioxide to produce a wide range of useful materials. But previous approaches have fallen short in a variety of ways. For example, they’ve required large amounts of energy and concentrated streams of carbon dioxide rather than the trace amounts found in air. One of the big challenges is that materials tend to preferentially react with oxygen, which is much more reactive than carbon dioxide and far more abundant. Oxygen makes up over 20 percent of the atmosphere, whereas there are only a few hundred parts per million of carbon dioxide.

With the new material, “the energy you need to put in is very low,” says Daniel DuBois, a senior scientist at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland, WA, who was not involved with the research. “And the fact that it will bind and reduce CO2 directly from the atmosphere is pretty startling. I wouldn’t have thought that you could do that.”
When the copper material is exposed to air, it binds two molecules of carbon dioxide to form oxalate. The researchers then expose the material to a lithium salt, which removes the oxalate from the material, forming lithium oxalate. By applying a low voltage to the copper material, the researchers reduce it to its original state, and it can again bind carbon dioxide. Lithium oxalate can easily be converted to oxalic acid, a ingredient in household cleaners such as rust removers, says Elisabeth Bouwman, a senior lecturer in inorganic chemistry at the University of Leiden in the Netherlands, who led the group that discovered the material. Oxalic acid can also be used to make ethylene glycol, an antifreeze and a precursor to some common plastics.

But Bouwman notes that the material is “a long way” from commercial applications. For one thing, it is very slow–it takes an hour to do each cycle. It’s also unlikely that the process, or indeed any other process for turning carbon dioxide into commodity chemicals, will significantly reduce atmospheric levels of carbon dioxide. Even if the process can be made much faster–and if expensive lithium salts can be replaced with sodium to reduce costs–there’s not enough demand for such chemicals to make a dent in carbon dioxide levels. For example, the chemicals produced in the largest volumes in the United States are only made at the scale of tens of millions of tons. Annual carbon dioxide emissions in the United States are around six billion tons.
The researchers are currently experimenting with the new material, changing it in small ways to learn more about how it works and to improve its performance.
Courtesy:
www.technologyreview.com

He said that all South Asian economies including Pakistan are confronted with a massive crisis of power shortage leading to excessive load shedding due to which their economies are badly suffering. However, they can overcome this problem if they agree to a single point agenda of utilizing untapped energy potential found in Pakistan and Nepal, he opined.
He said India with a 155,000 MW electricity generation capacity needs further 65,000 MW to accelerate economic growth. Pakistan with a production capacity of 19,600 MW is experiencing an average shortfall of 3500-4000 MW. Bangladesh produces 4148 MW while it needs additional 1352 MW and Nepal produces 61,748 MW but it also needs 400 MW to end load shedding.
Zahid Maqbool said according to the Geological Survey of Pakistan (2005), Pakistan has huge coal reserves of about 185 billion tons bulk of which are located in Sindh. He said only Thar coal reportedly has the potential to produce 100,000 MW for 300 years, if utilized optimally. Similarly Nepal has the largest hydro power potential in South Asia as it possesses 83,000 MW of hydroelectric power potential.
He stressed that to exploit this massive energy potential coal and water in Pakistan and Nepal, South Asian countries including India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh & Bhutan should pool their financial resources & technical expertise and start mega energy projects in Pakistan & Nepal and develop a consensus energy distribution formula for meeting their energy needs. He was of the view that if implemented, these ventures will greatly help in freeing South Asia from power shortages for good.

Bangladesh is now staring at a situation when misleading perception of the past decades on abundance of natural gas reserves has suddenly disappeared. Even in a short term perspective, it is unlikely that the country can come out of the quandary of enormous and complex proportions. The situation is further compounded by the fact that electricity related undertakings entail large investment, a long gestation period and an ensured supply of fuel for 30+ years of life of a plant. Our hopes are limited by our capacity to resolve these issues on a fast track, and a bleak future is a more realistic scenario. We have to have patience and learn to make sacrifices for some more years to come even if we resolve to learn and apply the tricks of comprehensive and programme based planning. In this backdrop, the importance of a proper generation-mix assumes overwhelming importance. The imaginary perception of reserves of indigenous primary energy resources has to be replaced by evolution of a realistic fuel-mix that can help develop the energy sector in keeping with the goals of socio-economic advancement. The alternatives include oil, coal and nuclear—each having a separate set of relative advantages and disadvantages. Discussions are now focused on coal as one of the options. It now accounts for about 41% of global electricity. In some countries, coal fuels a higher percentage of electricity. For example, its share in total generation is 94% in South Africa, 76% in Australia, 68% in India, 93% in Poland, 49% in USA, 81% in China.  Even a cursory analysis would show that these countries depend on indigenous reserves and thus take into account the question of sustainable energy security. In Bangladesh, the total deposit is not so significant that we can attain that level of security of supply. Naturally, the government is contemplating importing coal to fuel some future power plants. The combined capacity of such plants is reported to be 2000-3000 MW, according to various open sources of information. It is encouraging to see that the decision makers are looking beyond a contingency plan of energy supply. Before jumping into the environmental dimensions or the economics of this solution, it is worthwhile to look at the other important issues like logistics of transportation and handling of imported coal. A 300-MW coal-fired plant, operating at a plant factor of 75%, would require about 900,000 tons of coal annually, which is equivalent to a daily average uninterrupted supply of about 2,500 tons. Do we have such a capacity in place? If not, then do we have a plan in place as an integral part of the solution? In the past, when the requirements were much lower than what we plan for coal as fuel for thousands of megawatts of coal fired plants, ocean going vessels used to berth at River Mooring at Chittagong Port. It had a daily handling capacity of about 2000 MT. The alternative to this is to discharge from a larger mother vessel at the outer anchorage to lighter vessels of capacity to carry 1500 -2000 tons each. There used to be a dumping lot for coal near the Marine Academy Jetty, which had a holding capacity of about 30000 MT, which can possibly still be restored as the coal dumping yard. Even this storage capacity can cater for five days’ supply to a 300 MW power plant. Another alternative is to use conveyor belts for discharge of coal. In that event every lighterage vessel has to have its own conveyor system to unload. By doing so, the unloading capacity could be increased to 6000 MT for the River Mooring of Chittagong. Thus, it may be possible to have a maximum of 600 MW of coal-fired plants with coal imported through the Chittagong port. Another limitation is that due to draft restrictions, ships carrying a maximum of 25000 MT of coal can be berthed depending on the tide. Turn around time for such a vessel would be 4-5 days. In case of Mongla, the draft restriction will allow vessels with a maximum capacity of 10-12,000 MT, meaning that each ship could carry 4-5 days’ requirements of fuel for a 300 MW plant. One could imagine the stresses on the channels by movement of coal cargo. Moving coal upcountry from the port area is almost impossible, especially during the lean months. Thus, such plants have to be built close to the Chittagong port. This proposition, if implemented, would have little impact to supply of electricity to the energy-starved western zone of the country, where per capita availability of electricity is half of what is supplied in the east zone. The problems can be resolved subject to limitations, like handling and transportation of imported coal. Even, then the maximum capacity of generation with imported coal cannot possibly exceed 500-600 MW. And even for achieving this, a careful planning of handling has to be made and infrastructure for this developed. Burning coal produces about 9 billion tons of carbon dioxide each year which is released to the atmosphere, about 70% of this being from power generation. Other estimates put carbon dioxide emissions from power generation at one third of the world total of over 25 billion tons. Development of new “clean coal” technologies is addressing this problem. The ultimate aim is to achieve “zero emissions”. Burning coal gives rise to a variety of wastes which must be controlled. So-called “clean coal” technologies aim at resolving environmental concerns, including that of global warming due to carbon dioxide releases to the atmosphere. This includes, among others, coal cleaning by ‘washing’ which reduces emissions of ash and sulfur dioxide when the coal is burned, electrostatic precipitators and fabric filters for removing fly ash from the flue gases, flue gas desulphurization (FGD) for reducing emission of sulfur dioxide, use Low-NOx burners to reduce nitrogen oxide emissions, increasing efficiency of plant to reduce emissions per kwh, advanced technologies such as Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC) and Pressurized Fluidized Bed Combustion (PFBC) for increasing thermal efficiencies, ultra-clean coal (UCC) such as Gasification, including underground coal gasification (UCG) in situ, etc. for reducing ash and sulfur. Another dimension of burning coal is waste coal ash (85 tons of ash from burning of 100 tons of waste coal). Mercury and other toxic contaminants enter a waste coal burner, which are concentrated in the highly toxic ash that ultimately threatens the groundwater wherever this ash is dumped. Waste coal burners have cleaner air emissions than antiquated coal plants due to their better pollution controls. Waste coal ash is dumped in communities not far from the waste coal burners, threatening the groundwater with leaching lead, mercury and other poisons. Power plant waste is allowed to be dumped without the basic protections (landfill liners). Some of the measures mentioned are still to reach a level of maturity that would allow their use on a commercial scale. Often, even matured technologies are ignored to improve economics of electricity generation. Years ago, I saw a comment in a report by a reputed consulting firm which said that incorporation of FGD would increase cost of a coal-fired plant and that the coal option would result in a loss of at least a part of its economic advantages over the alternatives. I had politely asked the foreign consultant whether such a comment would be acceptable in his country. The answer was something between yes and no. This was in the 1980s. The scenario has changed since then, especially in the backdrop of universal concern for climate change. Ideas are floated now on carbon trading, carbon tax, low carbon path of development. If a consensus is reached on mitigation of Green House Gas emission, there would not be short cut available to mitigate emission-it is important to realize that retrofitting for improving technological performance, including making a power plant responsive to environmental and climate change mitigation regime will be costly, time consuming and even impossibility. It is likely that development of the energy sector with coal as one of its important components would require investments by the local and expatriate entrepreneurs.  And the regulatory regime should be comprehensive and exhaustive. Required codes and standards should be developed in consultation with the experts so that non-responsive technologies are automatically excluded. This should be true for power plants to be built both by the public and the private sectors. Infrastructure for handling and transportation should be developed so that the issues are resolved well ahead of time. All these aspects should be reflected in the coal policy or alternatively in a separate document on establishment of coal-fired plants. We need a secured and rugged energy-mix that would help sustainable growth of electricity sector. Coal is a viable proposition. Problems are diversified, but technological solutions are also available. All we have to do is be careful and prepare for all the likely pitfalls of coal-fired power plants with the risks minimized. A surprise appearing a few years down the line would fail to provide us with a reliable supply of coal based electricity.

By Kevin Bullis

With many renewable energy companies facing hard financial times (“Weeding Out Solar Companies”), a lot of the big energy news this year was coming out of Washington, DC, with massive federal stimulus funding for batteries and renewable energy and programs such as Energy Frontier Research Centers and Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (“A Year of Stimulus for High Tech”).

But there was still plenty of action outside the beltway, both in the United States and around the world. One of the most dramatic developments (“Natural Gas Changes the Energy Map”) was the rush to exploit a vast new resource; new drilling technologies have made it possible to economically recover natural gas from shale deposits scattered throughout the country, including in Texas and parts of New York, Pennsylvania, and Ohio. Advances in drilling technology have increased available natural gas by 39 percent, according to an estimate released in June. The relatively clean-burning fuel could cut greenhouse gas emissions by becoming a substitute for coal. Natural gas might even provide an alternative to petroleum in transportation, especially for buses and taxis–if only policymakers could take advantage of the new opportunity.

Meanwhile a number of technologies promise to cut down on emissions from coal plants. Feeding heat from the sun into coal plants could at once increase the amount of power that can be generated from a given amount of coal and reduce the cost of solar power (“Mixing Solar with Coal to Cut Costs”). And technology for capturing carbon dioxide (“Scrubbing CO2 Cheaply”) and storing it (“An Ocean Trap for Carbon Dioxide”) is finally emerging from the lab and small-scale projects into larger demonstrations at power plants, even while researchers explore potentially cheaper carbon-capture techniques (“Using Rust to Capture CO2 from Coal Plants”).

This year was also the year of the smart grid, as numerous test projects for improving the reliability of the grid and enabling the use of large amounts of renewable energy got underway (“Technology Overview: Intelligent Electricity”). The smart grid will be enabled by key advances, such as superconductors for high-energy transmission lines (“Superconductors to Wire a Smarter Grid”) and smart networks being developed by companies such as GE (“Q&A: Mark Little, Head of GE Global Research”).

Cellulosic ethanol–made from biomass such as grass rather than corn grain–moved closer to commercialization, with announcements of demonstration plant openings (“Commercializing Garbage to Ethanol”) and scientific breakthroughs that could make the process cheaper (“Cellulosic Ethanol on the Cheap”). But at the same time, a number of companies are moving beyond cellulosic ethanol to the production of gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel from biomass–fuels that can be used much more readily in existing infrastructure and in existing vehicles. Exxon-Mobil announced substantial investments in algae-based fuels (“Big Oil Turns to Algae”). Remarkably, one startup declared its process–based on synthetic genomics and algae–could allow biofuels to replace all of transportation fuels without overwhelming farmland (“A Biofuel Process to Replace All Fossil Fuels”).

Still, most people think biofuels will only supply a fraction of our transportation needs (“Briefing: Transportation”). To eliminate carbon emissions and drastically curtail petroleum consumption will require plug-in hybrids (“Driving the Volt”) and other electricity-powered vehicles (“Nissan’s Leaf: Charged with Information”). Advances that could double (or more) the energy capacity of batteries and lower their costs could one day make such vehicles affordable to the masses. These include new formulations such as lithium-sulfur batteries (“Revisiting Lithium-Sulfur Batteries”), metal-air batteries (“High-Energy Batteries Coming to Market”) such as lithium-air batteries (“IBM Invests in Battery Research”), and batteries that rely on nanowires and silicon (“More Energy in Batteries”). A novel concept for super-fast charge stations at bus stops could make electric buses practical (“Next Stop: Ultracapacitor Buses”).

Getting the electricity to charge these vehicles–without releasing vast amounts of carbon dioxide–could be made easier by a number of advances this year. A new liquid battery could cheaply store energy from wind turbines and solar panels for use when the sun isn’t shining and the wind isn’t blowing (“TR10: Liquid Battery”), making it practical to rely on large amounts of renewable electricity. Vast arrays of mirrors (“Solar Thermal Heats Up”) are being assembled in the desert to convert solar heat into electricity, and photovoltaic solar farms for converting light directly into electricity (“Chasing the Sun”) are getting a boost from the federal stimulus money. And researchers are finding ways to increase the efficiency of solar cells (“More Efficient, and Cheaper, Solar Cells”) and are discovering new photovoltaic materials to make solar power cheaper (“Mining Fool’s Gold for Solar”). And although progress on nuclear power is moving slowly, some advances on the horizon could help this low-carbon source replace fossil fuels (“TR10: Traveling-Wave Reactor”). Researchers even fired up the world’s largest laser system–one that’s the size of a football stadium–for experiments that could lead to a new form of fusion (“Igniting Fusion”).

Last, and almost certainly least, researchers have decided to look beyond the conventional sources of renewable energy–solar, wind, and waves–to hamsters. Researchers at Georgia Tech fitted the rodents with zinc-oxide nanowire jackets (“Harnessing Hamster Power with a Nanogenerator”), and watched as they generated an electrical current while scratching themselves and running on a wheel. See a video of the powerful hamsters here.

Source: www.technologyreview.com

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has asked the energy division to further review the draft coal policy, especially of the possible impact of mining on the people and environment.
The energy officials at a meeting with the PM recommended open-pit mining of the north side of the Barapukuria coalfield in Dinajpur, but Hasina said that she would not make any hurried decision on open-pit mining, said sources present at the meeting.
Energy officials and prime minister’s adviser Tawfiq-e-Elahi Chowdhury, state minister for power and energy Enamul Haque, energy secretary Mohammad Mohsin and Petrobangla’s chairman Muqtadir Ali made presentations before Hasina on the latest developments in the energy sector at the Prime Minister’s Office.
Finance minister Abul Mal Abdul Muhith, prime minister’s economic affairs adviser Mashiur Rahman and state minister for land Mustafizur Rahman were also present at the meeting.
The energy officials told the PM that non-resident Bangladeshis as well as the latest draft of the coal policy prepared by the caretaker government had recommended open-pit mining at Barapukuria.
The PM, however, told the energy officials that they needed to ascertain the possible impact of open-pit mining before they could come to a decision on the matter.
“Nothing is to be done in a hurry,” she is learnt to have said.
Hasina asked the energy officials to further review the draft policy before placing it again before her.
She also wanted to know whether the people affected by underground mining at Barapukuria were getting due compensation and at what stage was the plan to establish a mining city in Dinajpur.
The energy officials said that they had taken up a taka 300 crore project to compensate the affected people, acquire land and create a mining city. The officials also briefed the PM about the gas supply situation.

The government Tuesday put forward a bill in parliament for commercial handling of gas extracted from Bangladesh territory, including its offshore blocks. The put new law, if passed, would allow commercial bodies to construct domestic pipelines in designated areas for transmission, distribution, supply and storage of gas subjected to licensing by the Energy Regulatory Commission. They would also have authority over the pipelines, the proposed law says. Mohammad Enamul Haque, state minister for energy and power, proposed the Bangladesh Gas Bill 2009, which was sent to the parliamentary standing committee on energy. The committee was given six weeks for scrutiny of the bill before its passage. “There is no law on commercial transmission, distribution, marketing, supply and storage of gas in the country,” Haque told parliament in justification of the bill. The bill comes in the wake of contracts awarded by the government earlier this year to two foreign companies-US-based ConocoPhillips and Irish firm Tullow Oil-for oil, gas exploration in the Bay of Bengal. The contracts sparked controversy in the country as a left-leaning and very vocal action group, the National Committee on Protection of Gas, Oil, Electricity and Port, alleged that the deals would allow the foreign companies to export most of the gas out of the country. The government rejected the allegation saying there was no deal with the companies to export gas out of Bangladesh. According to the production sharing contract, the government would have first option to buy any extracted gas. The local market would have second option, and only if the domestic market cannot take the gas would the two foreign companies have the right to export it in the form of LNG (Liquefied Natural Gas). Much of the opposition to the PSC involved the fact that there was no facility in the domestic market for commercial handling of extracted gas. The newly proposed law could be a step towards establishing such facilities. The bill proposes allowing “any person or commercial entity to trade in gas, associated liquid hydrocarbons and derivatives by transmission, distribution and marketing subject to licensing”. The licensed bodies would also be able to store the hydrocarbon, the bill says. “We feel the necessity of a bill like this with a view to facilitating transmission and storage of locally extracted gas,” the minister said. “Besides, the bill will also help the government regulate sale of gas and establish rights on unmeasured gas resources.” The bill also proposes up to one year imprisonment or Tk 100,000 penalty for those who cheat consumers by selling CNG in violation of the government fixed gas pressure or by tampering with gauges. For “acts of sabotage” in the gas industry in any form, the bill also stipulates a maximum five years in jail and a Tk 1 million penalty for those involved destructive activities.