Suchergebnisse

With traditional east coast gas reserves in decline, industry and government argue new gas supply from the likes of Narrabri or import terminals is essential for post-COVID industrial recovery. Lead-times on new production mean addressing allocation is likely to secure more supply in the short-term. As much is recognized in the federal government's ADGSM, which delivers about ~200 TJ/day each year. Here we address the broader issue of allocation by asking to what extent can non-critical fuel switching - gas to electricity - help alleviate supply issues? Despite the ADGSM, LNG exports have seen a substantial diversion of Queensland CSG production away from domestic markets. We argue that fuel switching together with reservation of a small fraction of CSG production, in line with pre-2015 levels, can substantially alleviate critical industrial gas supply issues with significant additional benefits. We provide two policy prescriptions.

This paper analyzes the determinants of alternative automobile fuel regulation and development support with a particular focus on methanol fuel. We find that embedded interests, bureaucratic reforms, and political circumstances in the Chinese national, provincial, and municipal governments have all shaped policy outcomes in this area. The paper seeks to explain why at, the national level, support for alternative fuels has waned and finds that the concerns of state oil majors and disorganization during the process of national bureaucratic restructuring have been the deciding factors. Interestingly, at the sub-national level promotion of methanol continues unabated in some places. At the local level, business relationships as well as the embedded economic and personal interests of local leaders help to explain managerial local government behavior and sheds light on why government officials actively create and manage methanol fuel business opportunities through local standardization, subsidies, and hands-on management of SOE opposition. The switch towards methanol fuel was more successful in localities where individuals, either government officials or enterprise managers, formed an alliance and made this their 'pet projects'. The analysis draws on 55 interviews conducted between June and October 2010 in Shanxi, a major coal-producing province which has supported methanol fuel-switching programs for over ten years. The findings contribute to debates about the condition of the local state in China. The argument put forward in this paper is that because of limited state capacity at the central level and insufficient concerns for the development of alternative fuels in the short-term, some sub-national governments with strong embedded interests promote certain alternative fuels by taking on active managerial roles, adopting creative and ad-hoc strategies to fill in the national level policy gap at the local level.

This paper analyzes the determinants of Chinese government support for methanol automobile fuel development. At the national level, a preference for low carbon alternatives, ongoing bureaucratic restructuring, and profitability concerns of the national oil companies (NOCs) help to explain a lack of support for methanol fuel. At the local level, a short-term and localized view of industry development explains why some governments actively promote methanol fuel through local standardization, subsidies, and management of NOC opposition. The case of methanol fuel illustrates how local governments with strong, embedded interests have filled in the national-level policy vacuum on this issue. These findings contribute to the ongoing debate on the evolving central-local relations in China and hold lessons for alternative fuel adoption efforts underway in many parts of the world. (J Contemp China/GIGA)

Anthropogenic climate change is one of the greatest challenges of this century: The consequences of global warming above 1.5°C seriously threaten our civilization. Climate scientists thus agree that the release of greenhouse gases (GHG) to the atmosphere must be reduced by about 50% until 2030 and reach net-zero until 2050. The manufacturing industry is one of the main emitters of GHG in the European Union. This is caused by its reliance on fossil fuels as energy carrier and feedstock. This thesis investigates opportunities for important industrial processes to switch to less GHG-intensive energy carriers. The analysis incorporates technical, economic and behavioural aspects of energy carrier selection. The insights gained inform a bottom-up energy system model, which is used for policy advice on national and European level. One of the main conclusions of this thesis is that vast technical potentials for fuel switching exist and that it may be a substantial pillar of early decarbonisation. The realization of these potentials however requires drastic changes to economic conditions.

Anthropogenic climate change is one of the greatest challenges of this century: The consequences of global warming above 1.5°C seriously threaten our civilization. Climate scientists thus agree that the release of greenhouse gases (GHG) to the atmosphere must be reduced by about 50% until 2030 and reach net-zero until 2050. The manufacturing industry is one of the main emitters of GHG in the European Union. This is caused by its reliance on fossil fuels as energy carrier and feedstock. This thesis investigates opportunities for important industrial processes to switch to less GHG-intensive energy carriers. The analysis incorporates technical, economic and behavioural aspects of energy carrier selection. The insights gained inform a bottom-up energy system model, which is used for policy advice on national and European level. One of the main conclusions of this thesis is that vast technical potentials for fuel switching exist and that it may be a substantial pillar of early decarbonisation. The realization of these potentials however requires drastic changes to economic conditions.

he United States has dramatically increased its production of alternative fuels over the past seven years. With the passing of the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 (EISA), alternative fuel production will increase in the United States over 700% from 2005 levels. However, the pursuit of petroleum alternatives is not a recent trend. Over the last 100 years, various nations have pursued petroleum alternatives with varying levels of success. This research focuses on the historical development of 10 leading alternative fuels and feedstocks. Through a thorough literature review we will identify commonalities among these fuels and feedstocks which have hindered their adoption. Further, the research evaluates the 10 alternative fuels and feedstocks with text mining software to support findings from the literature review. This research finds that alternative fuels face significant challenges with regards to environmental impacts, technological maturity, and societal costs. Further, these petroleum alternatives have rarely been economical solutions. The research findings suggest that while there are National Security reasons for pursuing petroleum alternatives, rarely are there economic ones.