Sunday, August 27, 2006
Energy Consumption
There is no sign, yet, when oil price will subside. Alternative seems to be a hit word in energy world. Among oil, natural gas and coal are natural resources widely used to provide energy. Biofuel, synthetic gasoline, solar and wind attract lots of attention but still in the infant step.
Natural gas and coal can be converted to transporation fuel called GTL (Gas-to-Liquied) and CTL (Coal-to-Liquid) respectively. Natural gas has the least carbon, therefore it's the cleanest fuel. Yet, transportation of gas is not easy, either with pipeline or convert it to liquid form and transport it via ship. Natural gas price generally moves in tandem with oil price.
Coal is abundant - the supply is adequate for a century. Depending on the grade (anthracite, bituminous or lignite), the emission level of the chemical toxic is different. Coal always link with environmental issue.
Nevertheless, consuming of and relying on too much of oil during this volatile period do not seem to be a good idea. Coal should be a good replacement.
In Japan, South Korea and Taiwan, where natural resources is scarce, their economy depends less on oil. Four charts presented below shows the energy mix for these three countries and Thailand. It can be obviously seen that the oil consumption is stagnant in those three developed countries whereas in Thailand oil consumption is on the rising trend, albeit rising oil price.
Natural gas and coal can be converted to transporation fuel called GTL (Gas-to-Liquied) and CTL (Coal-to-Liquid) respectively. Natural gas has the least carbon, therefore it's the cleanest fuel. Yet, transportation of gas is not easy, either with pipeline or convert it to liquid form and transport it via ship. Natural gas price generally moves in tandem with oil price.
Coal is abundant - the supply is adequate for a century. Depending on the grade (anthracite, bituminous or lignite), the emission level of the chemical toxic is different. Coal always link with environmental issue.
Nevertheless, consuming of and relying on too much of oil during this volatile period do not seem to be a good idea. Coal should be a good replacement.
In Japan, South Korea and Taiwan, where natural resources is scarce, their economy depends less on oil. Four charts presented below shows the energy mix for these three countries and Thailand. It can be obviously seen that the oil consumption is stagnant in those three developed countries whereas in Thailand oil consumption is on the rising trend, albeit rising oil price.
# posted by offshore-engineer @ 12:33 PM 
