 Time to look at fossil fuels in a new light?
July 21st 2008
With increasing acceptance that for the short term at least, continued use of fossil fuels is essential to keep the lights on, is it time we started looking at fossil fuels in a new light? This was one subject of debate at The Energy Institute's recent event, Energy in Transition.
Arguing the case for A new dawn for coal in Britain, Jon Lloyd, Chief Executive of UK Coal urged that if coal is essential to address the energy needs of here and now: "it is surely better that we use local coal than import it half way across the world."
Lloyd also urged that future coal would use more advanced technologies and be more efficient than traditional coal and expressed hope that a new coal industry could be justified further if Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) is (as is currently hoped) up and running by 2014.
However when considering new technologies there were warnings that we must be realistic. While new technologies such as carbon capture are under development, "there is a difference between technologies being under development in the lab and in them being available on the mass market." pointed out Professor Brennan of Cranfield University, adding: "The Government and some financial investors are deluded if they think we already have the solutions."
In his presentation A new reality for fossil fuels, Mark Gainsborough vice president of supply, strategy and portfolio at Shell warned against believing that so-called green options are necessarily more favourable than traditional fuels, pointing out that although traditional fuels emit more CO2 than biofuels, they are less environmentally friendly in other ways - because the impact of agriculture is so widely underestimated.
While Gainsborough did not dismiss the potential of biofuels he urged: "We need to get sustainability criteria established for biofuels in the UK otherwise we will just get more and more bad biofuels and be in a worse situation."
Gainsborough also discussed the potential of developing unconventional resources including high-quality synthetic diesel fuel but stressed the importance of defining the future for CO2: "We must understand the policy framework which underpins these types of developments to make this possible."
Looking to the future Gainsborough called for political consensus to enable the technology options for change. "It takes a long time to deploy new technologies – often beyond the timescale of individual governments so there is need for political consensus. It is also critical to get more consensus globally."
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