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  Business Times 28 May 07
New energy sources and their cost
Fossil fuels set to continue as mainstay despite buzz over renewable sources
By Matthew Phan

IMAGINE making sand out of carbon dioxide, or pumping gas underground to enhance yields at existing natural gas fields - scientists from oil giant Shell say that such technologies are already available, though expensive, with work under way to make them cost-efficient.

Shell's projects to clean up traditional fossil fuel production range from immediate process improvements to longer-term projects that for now would do anything but reduce costs, such as in coal gasification and carbon sequestration.

Hydrocarbon-based fuels will continue to form the major part of energy supplies, notwithstanding the buzz over renewable sources like solar and wind, scientists said at a recent media briefing.

Coal, for example, is the world's fastest growing fuel and constitutes a major part of energy supplies for economies like the US, Japan, China and India.

Shell aims to reduce its production cost per unit of energy by 3 per cent annually, while maintaining sustainability efforts, said Bob Frith, president of Shell Technology India, the group's third technology centre worldwide and the only one in Asia.

This will be achieved partly through a carbon and energy management programme, launched at the briefing, to remove inefficiency and raise margins in Shell's integrated operations. It would offset higher costs arising from depleting supplies and higher extraction costs from tapping unconventional crude sources.

Coal gasification refers to the process in which coal is pulverised and dried before it is fed into a gasifier heated to more than 1,400 deg C. It reacts with the oxygen and steam to produce syngas, a mix of carbon monoxide and hydrogen that burns as cleanly as natural gas.

The technique - practised at fewer than 10 plants worldwide - represents the cleanest and most efficient method of extracting energy from coal, with far lower toxic emissions and up to 15 per cent less carbon emissions, while needing almost a quarter less coal for each unit of energy produced.

Shell is also experimenting with feeding biomass like sewage sludge or paper pulp in with the coal, which could further reduce carbon emissions.

Meanwhile, carbon sequestration could greatly cut the greenhouse gas emitted from crude oil-based operations by injecting the carbon dioxide back into the ground to stop it from escaping into the atmosphere.

Carbon dioxide could also be made to react with certain magnesium and silicon compounds, through an accelerated natural process, to yield no more than certain stable chemicals and, believe it or not, sand.

But these technologies are in the early stages of development, and it could be several years before they become cost-effective, the experts said.

More relevant to the here-and-now is EMbaffle, an innovation that Shell has patented and will license through a subsidiary. EMbaffle essentially redesigned heat exchangers by using existing wire mesh-like 'metal baffles' rather than chunky metal plates to support the pipes.

This reduces fouling, or clogging, and improves efficiency at low cost.

Still, the above are only ways to 'gain time' and 'stretch' existing fossil fuel supplies, while the search for sustainable alternatives that could structurally change the industry is under way, said Tan Teng Hai, regional manager of Shell's consultancy unit.
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