The search for alternate energy sources has lately taken on a frenetic overtone. Many countries have come to realize that they are utterly dependent upon other countries for their survival in the face of increasingly short supplies of energy.
Strangely, the generally shared assumptions include the notion that oil and natural gas are the only feasible sources of energy, and this seems to frighten the average consumer of energy. The fact is that fossil fuel energy sources are the last in a long line of other energy sources which have already provided good service to the consumer.
Unfortunately, fossil fuel resources are non-renewable; in other words, nature does not provide a regular and reliable refill. Once used, the fuel is gone. Thus the current desperate search for more sources of the same fossil fuels. Certainly alternate sources of energy are also being sought and considered, but that search seems to be suffering from many years of doubt and pessimism engendered mainly by the oil companies themselves who, naturally, do not want any more competition than necessary.
As a result, much of the world's attention and resources of late have been focused on the issue of reducing the effects of monopolistic control of the ever shrinking supply of fossil sources, rather than the development of alternatives to the monopolized fuels. The traditional monopolistic control of fossil-based energy sources is further complicated by the fact that some of the monopolistic motivation is generated by political considerations rather than profit considerations; thus the long established fossil fuel monopolies are no longer trusted.
The ability to monopolize the fossil fuel sources over the years have contributed considerably to world tensions and outright conflicts. The rapidly diminishing sources of these fossil fuels is now propelling the world toward more severe conflict.
Certainly, much of the current search for alternative fuels is centered in the laboratory and the common view is that impractical scientists are undertaking a fruitless search for fossil substitutes. Actually, what is happening is a search for improvements in the use and development of the already well-known alternative fuels available to us.
Prior to the age of oil, the world, going far back into ancient history, had been searching for, and using a variety of energy sources other than fossil fuels. Most of these alternate and earlier energy sources are renewable and continue to be available for exploitation. Their drawbacks, in many cases, were the lack of practicability, expense of production and/or implementation and the lack of efficiency in producing high speeds and long endurance.
Many of these alternate sources of energy are still available and they are being brought under control with improved practicability. These include wind and water power; both renewable and, thus far, available in rather abundant quantity.
Thus far, nature's energy supply is indeed copious, if a little inconvenient at times. But nature hasn't yet finished dazzling us with its infinite variety and availability. As an experiment, I gave my post-graduate MBA class an assignment last spring - "Recommend alternate energy sources useful to Ukrainian business."
The results are not only a tribute to the research competencies of our MBA students, but as well, to the ingenuity of some business leaders and entrepreneurs.
Naturally, some of the teams devoted their attention to the standard and rather well known alternate sources of energy such as solar panels, hydropower, geothermal power, and fossil based fuels. But even here, the student researchers found new approaches to the same old thing.
I would like to mention a few of the ideas researched by the students and to which I am sure all readers will respond with the thought: "Of course! Why didn't I think of that?" With the work of the students acting as the kick-starter of serious thinking, allow me to observe that all of the work produced by this group of dedicated students deserves more in-depth research with a view to serious implementation.
The students' research included the following results:
A. One team of students researched the state of the fossil fuel industry, namely oil. What they uncovered was no secret but nevertheless may evoke some surprise. The team, consisting of Vladislav Tkachuk, Musa Harb and Maxim Matyash, all candidates for the MBA degree, found evidence that much of the supposedly limited supply of oil is wasted in the refining process. Their research revealed that Ukrainian refineries achieve only a 50 percent utilization of crude oil input, whereas Western refineries achieve a utilization of 90-95 percent. This is attributed to the legacy of badly outdated and inefficient Soviet design and construction of existing refineries that were never intended to perform on the basis of a modern market economy.
B. Another student provided a tour de force of the non-fossil fuel sources available and concentrated on rapeseed as a major source of fuel. Su Shu, one of our very bright students from China, was only a Baccalaureate candidate when she wrote the required course paper, but is now part of our MBA program. She seemed a bit shocked that her research revealed that Ukraine is one of the least energy efficient countries, more than 2.6 times more energy used per unit of GDP (energy intensity) produced than the world average. She concluded that if Ukraine's energy intensity could be brought down to world average, its energy demand could be reduced by 62 percent, thus minimizing most of its need for energy imports. Su Shu examined major sources of alternative energy and concluded that the production of rapeseed, a high content oil crop, held the best promise for Ukraine's energy future. Nature has favored Ukraine with the agricultural assets necessary for successful rapeseed cultivation. As a biofuel, rapeseed oil offers several advantages over fossil fuels: it is less expensive, by about one-third, than fossil fuels, it burns much cleaner than fossil fuels with the main waste product being just plain water. Furthermore, by-products of the rapeseed refining process include a range of pharmaceutical products. As an additive to traditional diesel fuel, rapeseed oil could reduce fossil fuel dependence for industrial vehicle use by about 30 percent.
C. Sam Baghdasaryan, another MBA student, took a different approach altogether. Rather than researching alternatives, he went out and looked for and found an enterprising entrepreneur who was making use of his own, self-generated, alternate energy sources. This was a firm that initially had planned only to cut and trim timber and sell the resulting raw material for building purposes. However, early in the planning stages, the planners decided that they must be able to provide their customers with finished products as well. Their calculations worried them when they added in the cost of energy required for production of the finished products. Of course even the trimming of the cut timber required a large amount of energy, but the cutting and trimming of the timber itself produced waste; fully one third of the timber cut and trimmed was left on the floor as saw dust. The sawdust, however, provided a viable and substantial source of energy. The process described by Sam requires a very heavy supply of energy, but the energy need not be all of the same source. For example, one of the major energy demands in such an enterprise is derived from the need to dry the wood after cutting. In the particular plant observed by Sam the drying rooms occupied about 620 square meters of space, all of which had to be heated continually. Another heavy energy demand came from the need to transport the raw materials to the plant and the finished products from the plant to customers. I know of no one who has been able to use sawdust for automotive energy, but there is always a way. This particular plant bartered the excess sawdust for sausage, meat and fuel. The fuel of course took care of the plant's transport needs, but the sausage and meat? The sausage and meat enable the firm to provide free meals to their work force. Unfortunately, Sam was unable to learn how the firm took care of their remaining energy needs, such as electric powered saws and similar equipment. Nevertheless, what Sam was able to learn provides a lesson well worth learning: "One person's waste can easily become some one else's source of energy!"
D. Last but not least is the matter of utilizing garbage as a source of electrical energy and even diesel fuel as studied by Suzanna Andrienko, another graduate student at the university. This is not really new technology; it has been known for some time. This writer can recall steps being taken in the New York area many years ago toward preparing garbage for such processes.
Garbage presents us with two major problems and at the same time, two major solutions. The problems include the unsightliness of garbage until it is collected and disposed of. More than the aesthetic problems posed by uncollected garbage, one may worry about the attraction such piles of garbage, which are not unusual here in Kiev, present to insects and rodents. Many of these "visitors" are not very friendly; they carry, and spread, disease and present serious danger to children, especially infants, who might be in their path. These are very serious risks.
The good news, however, is that garbage, when properly collected and processed can provide electric power and diesel fuel. Sounds simple but, as usual, there are problems. In addition to the basic problem of being sure that the garbage is efficiently collected, is the fact that not all ingredients of the average garbage pail are suitable for conversion into energy. The conversion process includes a burning component; some items included in the average garbage pail simply do not burn. The problem then is to separate the contents of the garbage pail into burnable and non-burnable segments.
 This author consulted about 6 years ago with a city official in a small city in northwest Russia. The problem facing this city was that the cost of separating the garbage at the processing site was too expensive in both money and time. The best solution was that the residents of the city might be required to do the sorting. They could be required to set out the garbage in two containers, one containing burnable garbage, and the other containing the non-burnable garbage. Thus the collection process could move the waste directly to the processing station without further expense or waste of time. This appears to be a workable system indeed.
In fact such a system was then and is now in use in both the U.S. and Germany. Unfortunately, the city authorities were never able to persuade the citizens to cooperate by separating their waste. This may be a serious problem if not handled properly, but it is a problem capable of solution.
Of course the equipment necessary to implement these various alternative energy sources is expensive, but let us not overlook the cost of continuing to rely upon the good will of the monopolists to continue providing necessary energy. It seems too obvious to require even mentioning, but a careful investigation of the technical aspects of all of the foregoing alternatives, and others not even mentioned here, along with estimates of the total cost of these alternatives should be carried out and thoroughly considered. Actually, energy independence is not entirely a dream; it is achievable, as these students have demonstrated. It would be an unfortunate waste of assets not to pursue these already existing potential solutions to Ukraine's energy dependence problems.
E. F. Riccio, Juris Doctor, is a professor of logistics at Wisconsin International University of Ukraine in Kyiv.
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