Exposure to indoor air pollution from the combustion of solid fuels has been implicated, with varying degrees of evidence, as a causal agent of several diseases in developing countries. In a review of the epidemiological evidence for the health effects of indoor smoke from solid fuels, Bruce et al. concluded that, despite some methodological limitations, epidemiological studies provide compelling evidence of causality for acute respiratory infections (ARI) and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). This is reinforced by experimental data, studies of pathogenesis, and indirect evidence from environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) and ambient air pollution studies. (more…)

Global energy consumption in the last half century has increased very rapidly and is expected to continue to grow over the next 50 years. However, we expect to see significant differences between the last 50 years and the next. The past increase was stimulated by relatively “cheap” fossil fuels and increased rates of industrialization in North America, Europe, and Japan; yet while energy consumption in these countries continues to increase, additional factors are making the picture for the next 50 years more complex. These additional complicating factors include the very rapid increase fuel economy in energy use in China and India (countries representing about a third of the world’s population); the expected depletion of oil resources in the not-too-distant future; and the effect of human activities on global climate change. (more…)

Exposure to air pollutants and air pollution problem are very high in indoor environments in developing countries. Smith has estimated that at the aggregate level (i.e., without accounting for particle size, chemical composition, and source), approximately 80% of total global exposure to airborne particulate matter occurs indoors in developing nations. Details of exposure for various household members, and the roles of both pollution and behavior (e.g., location with respect to stove and activities), have been studied and evaluated using new tools and technology. (more…)

Electric utility deregulation offers the great promise of market forces leading to lower electric rates, lower air pollution environment, greater energy (and economic) efficiency, and perhaps greater use of renewable energy sources. Ideally, deregulation involves the restructuring of a previously monopolized or nationalized electric utility into separate generation, transmission, distribution, and marketing companies, and allowing wholesale and retail choice of generation company or power marketer. Deregulation has occurred to varying degrees since 1989 in the United Kingdom, Norway, Australia, New Zealand, Chile, Argentina, and about 20 states in the United States. There have been promising results in a few countries and in some U.S. states in some respects, especially lower rates and lower air pollution problems. In most cases, competitive markets have yet to be realized and lower rates can be attributed to other causes, such as previously planned amortization or retirement of expensive power plants, unexpected surplus in natural gas, rate caps, etc. In addition, deregulation has had only a slight beneficial effect on the use of renewable electricity sources. The promise of electric utility deregulation is thus unfulfilled and deserves further study.

Geopolitical considerations have played a major role in many renewable energy policy decisions, e.g., in domestic debates over gasoline taxes, pipeline construction, radioactive waste disposal, and acid rain control legislation in the United States, and in petroleumrelated violence in Nigeria. The most prominent role for geopolitics in energy policy has probably involved international discussions on controlling greenhouse gas emissions, and in oil markets. In the cases of the Kyoto Protocol of 1997 and the 1992 Framework Convention on Climate Change, nations carefully considered their national economic interests, domestic politics, and international trade during the negotiations. European countries, with the lowest rates of population and economic growth along with strong domestic environmental lobbies, have pursued a greater rate of greenhouse gas reduction.

The United States, in contrast, has been stubbornly cautious and backed out of the treaty in 2001 (arguing it is not in its economic best interests), and the oil-rich nations of the Middle East have been least supportive of any emissions controls. In the case of oil markets, with the United States now dependent on imports for over half its supply, energy policy and trade strategy have played major roles in the pursuit of new oil discoveries in Alaska and in warfare in Kuwait, Iraq, and perhaps Afghanistan.

air pollution problems created by coal combustion. Meanwhile, coal-fired power plants and industrial boilers spewed out tons of gaseous and particulate pollutants into the atmo- sphere. During combustion, the small amounts of sulfur and nitrogen in coal combine with oxygen to form sulfur dioxide (SO2), sulfur trioxide (SO3), and the oxides of nitrogen (NOx). (more…)

Smoke from biomass and coal combustion contains a large number of pollutants with known health hazards, including particulate matter, carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide, sulfur oxides (mainly from coal), formaldehyde, and polycyclic organic compounds (e.g., carcinogens such as benzo[a]pyrene). The concentrations of each of these pollutants vary among the different forms of solid fuels, with animal dung and crop residues having some of the highest level emissions to environment of particulate matter, one of the important indicator pollutants for health effects. (more…)

Currently, site reclamation is planned for during the permitting process and is incorporated into the mining operation. However, this was not always the case. Many mine sites were legally abandoned in an un-reclaimed or poorly reclaimed condition because mining was completed before environmental regulations went into effect. These abandoned mines are scars on the landscape and cause most of the water pollution attributed to mining. These old mines are considered abandoned because, in most countries, no one is legally required to reclaim the land or to treat the water. A similar problem occurs at mine sites that are or were operated by companies that have gone bankrupt. (more…)

The spark-ignition and compression-ignition engine and internal combustion engines technologies that are currently employed in motor vehicles were developed more than 100 years ago. These conventional vehicle technologies are fueled by petroleum-derived gasoline and diesel fuels (the socalled conventional fuels). Over the past 100 years, the conventional technologies have been dramatically improved, reducing cost and increasing performance. (more…)

<
The operations on-board an oil tanker transportation are radically different from those on other types of ships, primarily due to the physical properties of the cargo. The entire cargo operations are highly automated and proceed with no one on-board the ship or shore seeing the cargo physically. Even minor misunderstanding of an order or a miscalculation can cause a major spill in pristine locations. By the same token, a tanker crewed by properly trained seafarers under good management could very well be the safest ship afloat. Although most tanker voyages today are completed safely and go unreported, even a minor tanker pollution accident often gets widespread attention from the media, and the image of a polluted beach laden with dead flora and fauna is a sad and telling picture. (more…)

Designers in China have launched the first wind turbine levitating in the world of permanent magnetic levitation (Maglev) in the Wind Power Asia Exhibition 2006.

Considered a key step in the evolution of global wind power technology and a notable advance in independent intellectual property rights in China. The generator was jointly developed by the Institute of Energy Research of Guangzhou in the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Guangzhou Hengyuan Energy Science & Zhongke Technology Co., Ltd. (more…)