The Jatropha plant is one of the most environment friendly sources of bio fuel

The X-Prize foundation is mostly known for its often eye catching and headline grabbing acts having little practical significance for the common men in most cases. In the past it has announced multi million dollar contests for causes such as private space travel, genome mapping and ultra fast cars. These might well be the rudimentary needs of our future but at present it means little for the common populace. But it has suddenly narrowed down its vision into the “green” and “clean” fuels, a category which is of utmost importance to the entire mankind and already has several players sweating it out for that elusive breakthrough. It has also announced prize money worth $100 million for the purpose, its biggest ever. So now the million dollar question is whether it has put the money in the right place or not.

The present equation: An energy starved world caught in a political quagmire
The present power scenario is a complex conundrum of bitter conflicts fueled by political interests as well as the obvious limitedness of the natural resources. One reason for this is that most of the petroleum resources of the world are confined in certain geographic pockets, especially a few countries in Western Asia and South America. It is common knowledge that the United State’s keen interest in West Asia is nothing but a part of its well planned strategy revolving around energy security. The US is so obsessed about it, that it is ready to pay any price to maintain its clout over the region and in fact has paid a heavy price over the last decade. We should also note that the oil prices have been soaring higher and higher in recent times. The oil cartel, led mostly by the Arab nations, hardly misses any excuse to raise the crude oil prices. This is what has made other nations to think of alternatives.
We also need to note that the rapidly developing and transforming countries with huge populations like India and China are going to increase the energy demand to manifolds over the next decade. If we take India’s example, we can see that still a huge population is not having excess to basic amenities like electricity and pure drinking water. They consume only a meager amount of power as of now. But with intensified efforts of social welfare, development and eradication of poverty, standards of living will soon improve and these people will soon start consuming a huge amount power. But the ironic fact is that we will not be able to meet the power needs of these people with the existing means. That is why quest for alternatives has already begun. In fact the entire episode of Indo-US nuclear deal is an attempt at attaining energy security although the efficacy and side effects are debatable in this context.

The Ethanol Fiasco
Before getting too much into the clean fuels we need to look at what is happening to ethanol based fuels of late. Until a few months ago, they were being seen as the panacea for this ailing world. Countries like Brazil have gone great lengths in producing and popularizing such fuels. But perhaps no one had the foresight to see the socio economic implication of this magic potion. Using corn, wheat or soybean to run automobiles has led to an artificial food crisis. As the edible crops are being consumed by the cars instead, the scarcity in the food market has resulted in unprecedented inflation in various countries. As a result, the poor and the downtrodden ones, who never got their share of petrol and electricity before, are now not even getting to eat properly. So, it clear lesson is that the probable side effects of alternative fuels have to be anticipated more meticulously now onwards.

The Road Ahead
So the X Prize Foundation is probably right in focusing on the clean fuel segment. But the focus should be clearly defined. For example the use of Jatropha plants to produce bio-diesel in several countries like India seems to be an interesting development. Not much of care is needed for such plants and they can grow on wastelands rather than eating up the arable land. We will have to wait for a few years more to see whether it will be economically viable for large scale production or not. Nevertheless, it seems to be a better option that the conventional ethanol sources being used at the moment. In fact equal emphasize should be given on development of proper mechanism to use such fuels. Lightening had been frightening us for the ages, but it took thousands of years to realize how to use it. Similarly we need to find ways to use these new sources more efficiently because no matching alternative for the conventional internal combustion engine has been found yet.

Anyway, let us hope that this new announcement will accelerate the quest for better alternatives for fuels which will abate the bitter political rivalry surrounding oil and will also help us breathe easy in this carbon laden atmosphere created by a century of petrol guzzling.

Photo Via Afrodiesel.blogspot