On the 9^th of March three groups conducted a roundtable discussion about three different issues. The issues were mainly social oriented and each group was comprised on one supporting side and another side who are against it.

Group 1

The first group’s roundtable discussion was about whether Singapore should adopt the Green Chemistry by promoting the collaborative effort by industry, academia and government. They argued about the possibility of Singapore, being a country using biodegradable plastics instead of the normal ones.

The supporting side pointed out that the biodegradable plastic can be made from biomass. They pointed out that the biodegradable plastics enable the recycling process as well as its safe to the environment. The opposing side argued that such a replacement from normal plastics to biodegradable ones will be expensive.

Biodegradable plastics are the new way of controlling green house gas emissions. It is quite noticeable that the normal plastics cannot be recycled whereas the biodegradable ones can easily be recycled. With sufficient support from the government, it will be possible to implement the use of biodegradable plastics without making extra expenditure.

Group 2

The second groups focussed about the pros and cons of genetic engineering. The main point was to debate about whether the government and institutions should regulate the use of this technology.

The supporting side argued that the parents should have the right to decide how their children have to be. The points the groups discussed on are deciding the gender of the baby and the nature of skills they want to implement in their children. They also argued that by implementing this, common diseases that develop in children can be controlled.

The opposing side argued that deciding the gender of the baby can cause sex imbalance in the world population. They also pointed out that by doing this the complete control of a child skills will be upon the wish of their parents. A child will not be able to acquire a skill by himself/herself. The rebutted the argument of disease control in children, by pointing that the genetic engineering can cause other diseases which will be quite hard to wipe out.

I believe that genetic engineering is such an innovative technology and it should be used in a controlled manner. Some benefits of the genetic engineering like the parents deciding the skills that a child wants can be utilized. But deciding the gender using the genetic engineering should be controlled since it can lead to a high level of sex imbalance.

Group 3

The 4^th and the final group focused on the climate change mitigation technologies. They argued about whether the carbon capture and storage technology should be implemented or not.

The supporting side argued that carbon capture and storage is an effective and efficient way to control the greenhouse gas emission. They pointed out that the carbon dioxide can be stored at the sea bed and the sausage in which the carbon dioxide is leak proof. The opposing side argued that the carbon capture and storage technology is expensive to implement. They also told that most of the developing countries are not emitting carbon dioxide and they will not benefit from implementing this system. The space required for the storage will increase day by day and this will make this technology not feasible.

I believe that the carbon storage technology is something which needs the last attention upon. The down sides of implementing this technology are quite high. The earth quakes usually happen at sea bed since it being the nearest surface to the earth’s core, and the countries which badly need this technology are earth quake prone regions. This can act as a barrier in implementing this technology. 

Biodiesel, Necessary or Unnecessary.

                Today Biodiesel has become one of the hot topics in the field of fuel for transportation. It is noticeable that a large number of countries are stepping forward to implement the biodiesel manufacturing. Due to the rise of the petroleum diesel prices the demand for the biodiesel is increasing. The article that is to be discussed on is by the Energy Information Administration of the United States.

                The Energy Information Administration claims about a number of benefits about the implementation of the Biodiesel. In the United States the major source for the biodiesel production are the soya bean oil and yellow grease. There are two kinds of way in which the biodiesel can be used. The first one is blending with normal petroleum diesel and the other one is using the bio diesel as a primary fuel.

                The biodiesel has a higher cetane number compared to petroleum diesel. This helps it autoignite faster when compared to the normal diesel. The cetane number of biodiesel has an average of 50.9 whereas the cetane number of normal diesel is somewhere in between 30 and 45. Another great property of biodiesel is the lack of sulphur. This property gives biodiesel a better lubricate than the petroleum diesel. Biodiesel also have some performance disadvantages. The performance of biodiesel in cold weather conditions is much worse than the normal petroleum diesel. The cloud point and the pour point of the biodiesel are higher when compared to the petroleum diesel.

                Another main disadvantage is that the biodiesel tends to reduce the fuel economy. Energy efficiency and the volumetric efficiency of biodiesel is low when compared to the petroleum diesel. The energy content per gallon of biodiesel is 11% lower than that of petroleum diesel and using the biodiesel is expected to reduce the volumetric efficiency by 2.2%. About 11% of the weight of the biodiesel is oxygen. The presence of oxygen causes the nitrogen oxide emissions which will affect the ozone layer at a higher level when compared to the carbon monoxide by the petroleum diesel.

                Biodiesel can be produced by various processes. Among all the main way for the production of the bio fuel is from the soya bean oil. From the data acquired from the past few years the price of the soya bean is increasing every year. This exponential increase in the price soya bean has caused an increase in the price of the biodiesel. This price hike made biodiesel expensive to use than the normal petroleum diesel. However, in the United States the government has given incentives to support the expansion of biodiesel production.

                Biodiesel made from the yellow grease is more cost – competitive with the petroleum diesel than is the biodiesel from the soya bean oil. But the available supply of the yellow grease will limit its use for biodiesel production by 100 million gallons per year or less. Unless the soya bean oil prices decline dramatically, it does not appear that biodiesel can be produced in large quantities at a cost that is competitive with petroleum diesel.

Evaluation

                Although many advantages of biodiesel is mentioned in the article above, the disadvantages it shows is equally high too. The first one is the lack of performance is the cold weather conditions. The U.S and China are cold countries and since the majority of the vehicle users in the world comes from here. This makes it difficult to implement the use of biodiesel in these two countries.

                The article also mention that the biodiesel also tend to decrease the fuel economy. Since the energy efficiency and the volumetric efficiency of biodiesel is low when compared to the petroleum diesel, the users are reluctant to change the fuel from petroleum diesel to the biodiesel. Another major issue is the pollution of the atmosphere. While the operation, vehicles using biodiesel causes nitrogen oxide emissions which is much more dangerous than the carbon monoxide.

                All these disadvantages are equally high than that of the normal diesel. This makes it necessary to think twice about implementing the biodiesel to replace the petroleum diesel.

Reference:

Energy Information Administration (US).  “Biodiesel Performance, Costs and Use.” Retrieved on March 10, 2009 from http://www.eia.doe.gov/oiaf/analysispaper/biodiesel/

Vocabulary Reference

Cetane number: A measure of the ignition quality of a diesel engine fuel by comparison with various mixtures in which the alpha form of methylnaphthalene is given a standard value of 0 and cetane is given a standard value of 100.

Could Point: The temperature at which a sample of the fuel starts to appear cloudy

Pour Point: The temperature below which the fuel will not flow.

Energy Efficiency: The percentage of the fuel’s thermal energy that is delivered as engine output.

Volumetric Efficiency: Mile travelled per gallon of fuel.