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CHANGING THE BLACK INTO THE GREEN
by: Jorge Laine
Instituto Venezolano de Investigaciones Cientficas(Venezuelan
Institute for Scientific Research)
Nowadays, the proliferation of nuclear-fission energy
developments is being activated by
the increasing human population and by the exhaustion of the
natural reserves of the
favorite fossil fuel: petroleum. However, latest nuclear
incident at Fukushima, and otherrisks associated such as the
disposal of radioactive by-products, as well as the possible
use
of artisan atomic explosives by terrorists; support the
necessity of converging in
developments of other energy alternatives.
As an example, if Sahara desert (~ 1 Gha) could be greening with
sugar cane or oil palm, it
could be produced enough bioenergy to replace world petroleum
production (~30Gbbl/year); as long as these crops can capture
atmospheric carbon transforming it into ~ 30bbl/ha of biofuels.
Alternatively, within the same context of the bioenergy as a
renewable
energy, is the integral processing of wood forests to feed
biorefineries producing power
plus biofuels.
As a cause of concern, if fossil fuels consumption continues at
present rate (~ 7 Gton
C/year), atmospheric carbon (actually: 750 Gton C) could
duplicate within this century,
implying fateful predictions of climate change. Intensifying
photosynthesis by desertgreening would contribute to offset the
increase of atmospheric carbon concentration. It
should be remarked that including the Sahara, total arid areas
accounts for about 1/3 of total
non-permafrost terrestrial area.
Desert greening, also referred to as afforestation, could be
reality if: 1) desert soils organic
carbon is increased; for example with the application of
agrichar derived from fossil
hydrocarbon processing, as considered as a perspective recently
[1], and 2) if irrigationsources are insured. This later could be
achieved in arid zones by sea water desalinization
using concentrated solar power technology. CSP panels covering 1
ha can manage the
irrigation of 100 ha [2]. In addition, the decrease of
terrestrial albedo caused by greeningwould also affect the change
of water cycle favoring rainfall frequency over the changed
land (see Fig.1).
The decay of the black economy due to petroleum reserves
exhaustion would be offset bymost developed countries thanks to the
incorporation of transport vehicles using
rechargeable batteries and fuel cells, and to smart grids
connecting a variety of electric
power sources: thermoelectric using coal or hydrogen produced
from coal, hydroelectric,
solar energy (panels cells and wind turbines), and geothermal.
In the case of last generationthermoelectric, clean energy is
insured by the underground injection of greenhouse gas
exhaust.
However, in less developed countries the adoption of new
technologies is difficult and slow
respect to their population increase, implying the continuation
of increasing demands of
conventional fuels, converting the scenario of scarce petroleum
supply into another
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scenario of land used for cropping raw materials for the
emergent fuels: ethanol and
biodiesel.
Less developed third world countries are mainly located within
Cancer and Capricorniatropics, where theoretically agricultural
productivity can be larger than on temperate
latitudes; consequently, and taking into account its easy
know-how, bioenergy would be themost suitable alternative for
sustainable development of third world. Remarkable, biofuels
use implies CO2 recycling between atmosphere and biosphere,
diminishing greenhouse
effect.
Certainly, land use change for producing biofuels would not
affect human food supply if
modern agricultural methods are employed (seeEnergeia, 18(6)
2007.). Nevertheless, greatscale bioenergy production must be
managed in harmony with environment integrating
perennial forests and crops, maintaining enough areas for
preserving biodiversity.
Such green economy scenario debated at the Stockholm first
summit of humandevelopment about 40 years ago, which continue in
two other meetings at Rio de Janeiro
during the last 20 years, must be the appropriate way for the
transition of the actual fossil
fuel era to the desired clean energy era, when paradoxically
another type of -benign-
nuclear energy could be functioning on Earth: the same hydrogen
fusion employed by sun.
[1]http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1364032112003899[2]http://www.dlr.de/Portaldata/41/Resources/dokumente/institut/system/publications/Trieb
_CSP_for_Desalination-MENAREC4.pdf
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