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       December 1995                             Volume 5, No. 12


                              IN THIS ISSUE


     ECONOMICS & ENVIRONMENT

                         Green Technologies III

     LITERATURE REVIEWS

                     Asia: Reviving Audit and Law

                        A Walk for Clean Water

                    "Nerve Gas" in the Water Supply?

     ORGANIZATIONS

              Institutional Reform and the Informal Sector


     VITA PROJECTS

                      Agreement for New Satellite

     ANNOUNCEMENTS

                     Monitoring of the Environment


                              *    *    *


    DevelopNet News is published monthly by Volunteers in Technical
     Assistance (VITA) in Arlington, Virginia, USA. For additional
          information, please see the end of this newsletter.


                              *    *    *

E c o n o m i c s   &   E n v i r o n m e n t

GREEN TECHNOLOGIES III

How can we get energy from fossil fuels more cleanly and efficiently?
Cheap, plentiful energy has improved the lives of both the developed and
developing world, but at what cost to the environment? The burning of
fossil fuels that generate more than 85% of the world's total energy
requirements has created a multitude of atmosperic ills ranging from
smog to acid rain and global warming. As energy continues to be gener-
ated from fossil fuels and greenhouse gas emissions continue to
increase, it becomes increasingly urgent to produce the required energy
at a lower environmental cost.

Fossil fuels

Before the discovery and development of fossil fuels (coal, oil, and
natural gas), people relied on such readily available energy resources
as wood and other forms of biomass, as well as water and wind, to sat-
isfy their basic energy needs. Since the beginning of the 19th century,
however, fossil fuels have played an increasingly important role in the
world economy, by providing the energy required for industrial develop-
ment, residential and commercial heating, cooling, lighting, and trans-
portation services.

While the industrial countries now use most of the world's total energy,
studies by the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory (Berkeley, California) show
that by the year 2025 the proportion used by developing countries could
rise from the present 30% to 57%. The increases is not surprising;
According to the Berkeley group, "these nations literally are develop-
ing, and devote more than 30% of their governments' budgets to energy
development. Gradually, they are claiming a greater per capita share of
global energy consumption."

While the future rate of energy demand depends on many variables includ-
ing the rate of population growth and the rate of economic growth, it is
clear that fossil fuels will continue to play a role in the world energy
supply picture. And the higher the levels of energy demand that are sat-
isfied by fossil fuels, the higher will be the levels of greenhouse gas
emissions produced.

Environmental effects

In the last 25 years alone, for example, total world electricity produc-
tion has more than doubled. Fortunately, this growth has been accompan-
ied by increasing awareness that power plants cause a variety of major
environmental problems. Coal-fired power plants, which provide nearly
40% of the world's electricity, emit particularly high levels of
pollutants.

There may be no easy way to reduce mankind's current use of fossil
fuels. But some available technologies offer benefits to partly offset
environmental damage. They include more efficient generation of elec-
tricity from fossil fuels, clean coal and cogeneration, and advanced
gas-fired combustion and related technologies.

Energy efficiency

One way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuels is through
the more efficient production of electrical power by using less fossil
energy. Some of this gain can be achieved by refurbishing existing
powerplants. In some industrial countries, refurbishment has brought
efficiency increases of 3% to 4%. However, in the developing world, most
thermal powerplants operate at less than full capacity and lowered
efficiency, the gain would be greater. Back in 1988 the US Agency for
International Development estimated that in the developing world a rig-
orous program of powerplant rehabilitation could improve their effi-
ciency by 10%.

Another method of improving energy efficiency is the adoption of inte-
grated resource planing which considers the cost and benefits of energy
saving options (such as efficient lighting and appliances and super-
insulating windows) in planning structures or activities. As part of
this demand-side management or "negawatt" approach, U.S. spending on
efficiency grew from less than $900 million in 1989 to an estimated
$2,300 million in 1992. A report of the US Oak Ridge National Laboratory
says that, if all utility companies achieved just half their growth
through efficiency, projected U.S. electricity use in 2010 could be cut
19%.

While most countries lag behind the United States in adopting demand-
side management, higher efficiency has become a goal of many developing
countries. According to the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, these nations
could cut power use by 25% over the next 30 years. Thailand's national
utility will soon begin a $190 million, five-year program that includes
the purchase of efficient lights, appliances, and motors. Such efforts
are likely to increase as the World Bank and regional development banks
increase their encouragement of "efficiency projects." But efficiency
improvements alone are unlikely to halt the greenhouse effect and stop
global warming.

Clean coal technologies

In the United States alone, more than one-third of the energy used goes
to generate electricity and more than half of that is generated from
coal. To help reduce emissions coal-burning energy generation, the U.S.
Department of Energy is developing clean coal technologies for maximal
efficiency and minimal environmental impact. This approach can signifi-
cantly reduce air pollution resulting from energy generation. One prom-
ising clean-coal technology is pressurized, fluidized-bed combustion, an
advanced technology that captures sulfur pollutants inside a plant's
coal boiler while keeping combustion temperatures below the point where
most nitrogen pollutants form. The second clean-coal technology, called
integrated gasification/combined cycle, uses a coal gasifier instead of
the traditional combustor. Coupled with an advanced gas turbine, it can
clean coal of more than 99% of its sulfur and ash and 90% of its nitro-
gen pollutants. Combined cycle plants have reached efficiencies of over
40%, and a General Electric combined-cycle plant that opened in 1993 in
South Korea has an efficiency of about 50%.

Other clean coal technologies that are being developed for the 21st cen-
tury include:

---  Low-Emission Boiler Systems, which are reengineering today's pul-
verized coal boiler and building in advanced combustion and innovative
flue-gas cleaning systems.

---  Indirectly Fired Cycles, designed to use the hot gases from coal
combustion to heat a working fluid (like air) that drives the turbine.
Some designs involve novel high-temperature furnaces, while others are
based on an innovative ceramic heat exchangers. The US Department of
Energy (DOE) estimates that long-term efficiencies could approach 55%.

---  Gasification-Fuel Cell Combinations. Fuel cells are extremely clean
and highly efficient. Because they can operate on most hydrogen-
containing fuels, a future power plant might link a coal gasifier with a
fuel cell. DOE is developing natural gas fuel cells along with the hot
gas cleanup systems to provide the option of using coal gas. Power effi-
ciencies could top 60%, and in a cogeneration system, efficiencies could
approach 85%.

Why cleaner coal technologies are needed

DOE projections show that the United States alone will require 150,000
to 250,000 megawatts of new generating capacity by 2010. If steady pro-
gress is made in replacing older, uncontrolled power plants or refurb-
ishing them with new technologies, efficiencies and environmental per-
formance will improve so that hundreds of thousands of megawatts of more
generating capacity can be produced without increasing sulfur dioxide
emissions. The higher efficiencies also will translate directly into
lower costs for consumers.

With 40% of the world's electricity being generated by coal -- more than
twice that generated from any other fuel -- it is equally important to
push for the use of clean power technologies. With newly industrializing
nations expanding their energy demands, DOE estimates that world coal
use will double in the next 30 years. China alone now burns more than
1,000 million tons of coal per year, India's coal use rose by almost 70
percent in the 1980s, while South Korea's coal use more than doubled.
According to DOE "if the world's power producers could adopt high-
efficiency coal technologies by 2075, global carbon dioxide emissions
would almost level off, at about 15,000 million tons per year. This
would occur even as world coal use rises dramatically, growing as much
as 750% over the 2000-2075 time period." The effect would be to cut
carbon dioxide emissions by more than half.

Information: Vicki Tsiliopoulos <vickit@vita.org>.


L i t e r a t u r e   R e v i e w s

ASIA: REVIVING AUDIT AND LAW

Bernard Donge, 1995. "Bank to Help Improve Audit Systems in DMCs;" pages
8-9, 16. Barry Metzger, 1995. "Law as an Instrument of Economic and
Social Change;" pages 12-16. In ADB Review (Manila) May/June.

Twenty-four centuries ago, in ancient India, the author Kautilya named
two kinds of government officers: those who kept records and others who
audited them. "Auditing is not a new concept in western or eastern
civilizations," says Donge, but recent innovations include its organized
structure, an updated definition of scope, and the use of modern tech-
niques. Today more than ever, the resources of nations are limited and
needs are not; national leaders must decide which programs to fund and
which to cut. Good decisions require information of high quality, and
the quality is assured by proper audit. The Asian Development Bank, in a
variety of programs, arranges for technical assistance to countries that
are developing central audit programs, especially Bangladesh, India,
Mongolia, Philippines, and Viet Nam.

As Asian countries switch from state-planned economies to market orient-
ation, a wholesale revamping of the legal system is needed to make the
transition. This is especially true in Cambodia, Lao PDR, and Viet Nam
as well as in the former Soviet Union and much of Eastern Europe. The
private sector must be encouraged to play a more active role in devel-
opment. There is a growing realization of the importance of law as an
instrument of social change in implementing public policies related to
development. And in some countries, it is recognized that a healthy
legal system can "help to protect the citizenry against the excesses of
an overreaching state," according to Metzger. Viet Nam prime minister Vo
Van Kiet says, "We lack many laws. In the economic field, which is a
priority of legislation, a legal framework still has to be worked out."

The Asian Development Bank's projects help member countries to revise
their laws, provide mechanisms for continuous updating of laws, build
training systems for lawyers, and select the best approaches from many
traditions that are now represented in their legal communities. Partic-
ular legal issues include privatization and economic growth, environ-
mental law, the status of women, public sector reform, and legal
training.

Donge and Metzger are, respectively, general auditor and general counsel
at the ADB. The Bank's reports and data can be accessed at
<http://www.asiandevbank.org>.


A WALK FOR CLEAN WATER

[Marc Lammerink], 1995. "Village Walk: Start of Joint Problem Identifi-
cation." Water Newsletter No. 235 (September), page 2. The Hague: IRC
International Water and Sanitation Centre.

Rural communities must be encouraged to manage their own water systems.
That is a message now understood with increasing clarity by government
officials and policymakers. Once this idea is accepted, just how do you
start the encouragement process? According to Marc Lammerink (IRC Cen-
tre), "A walk in the villages of Nyen and Mbemi, about 30 km from
Bamenda, Cameroon, turned out to be an excellent start."

Each village walk required three hours on two successive days. The
participants were village water committee members and local and outside
officials. The officials got acquainted with the committee members as
they walked through all quarters of the village. Some of the residents
participated in the discussions. "The walk gave a good overview of the
water situation, and also the uses of the palm and raffia trees, which
are the main sources of income for the villages [and whose processing]
demands a sizeable amount of the communities' water." After the walk,
the group (now larger) drew "maps" (Venn diagrams) showing the responsi-
bilities of key organizations and individuals. The size and arrangement
of the circles on the diagrams were refined by discussion until the
representation was accurate. The last evening was devoted to a discus-
sion of lessons learned from the exercise. It was then agreed that the
villages were ready for problem identification.

In Cameroon, the walks were part of a two-week regional workshop which
is an element of a larger project covering Colombia, Guatemala, Kenya,
Nepal, and Pakistan, supported by the Netherlands government.


"NERVE GAS" IN THE WATER SUPPLY?

Hosny K. Khordagui, 1995. "Fate and Control of Nerve Chemical Warfare
Agents in the Desalination Industry of the Arabian-Persian Gulf."
Environment International, volume 21, no 4, pages 363-379.

An unverified report stated that nerve chemical warfare agents ("nerve
gas") were used during the Iran-Iraq war, and their use was threatened
by Iraq against the allied forces during the Kuwait liberation. Since
the nations that surround the Arabian-Persian Gulf rely almost entirely
on desalinated seawater for drinking, Khordagui has performed a valuable
service by summarizing what is known about the survival of nerve gases
in the Gulf, and on their possible fate during the industrial process of
desalination.

Nerve gases dissolve in sea water and gradually disappear as they are
hydrolyzed. But their rate of disappearance depends on such variable
factors (not thoroughly understood) as temperature, water circulation,
and the nature of rocky surfaces at the bottom. For example, one gas
(Sarin) had a half-life of about eight minutes at 25 degrees C. and a pH
of 8, under one set of conditions.

Does the desalination process used to make the water drinkable remove
the gases? The membranes used are slightly permeable to the gases, but
the survival of the toxic materials can be easily controlled. The author
says, "when seawater is processed for . . . potable water production, it
will be subject to chlorination and thermal exposure. It is safe to
presume that whenever seawater is contaminated with moderate levels of
agents (around 1%) at a distance far enough for hydrolysis to take
place, this level will most probably pose no threat to the produced
drinking water supply."


O r g a n i z a t i o n s

INSTITUTIONAL REFORM AND THE INFORMAL SECTOR (IRIS)

While some developing countries have fallen behind the richer nations,
others have achieved spectacular economic growth. The IRIS project
proposes that these striking differences in economic performance have
not been due to the varying amounts of capital or other resources
available to different countries but, rather, to the quality of a
country's institutions.

IRIS was initiated on the premise that institutions in the less suc-
cessful economies of the Second and Third Worlds offer poor structures
of incentives, inhibit economic growth and democratic development, and
often force much economic activity into the informal economy. IRIS seeks
to provide assistance in institutional reform and undertake research
that will enhance the knowledge about the role institutions play in
development.

The project is currently operating in Central Europe, India, Mongolia,
Nepal, the Newly Independent States; Russia; and Gaza and the West Bank.
It provides advice, technical assistance, research, and direct financial
support to groups seeking to improve laws, rules, and procedures related
to the development of competitive markets in developing and transition
economies.

Information: IRIS, 2105 Morrill Hall, College Park, Maryland 20742; tel.
+1 (301) 405-3110; fax: +1 (301) 405-3020; e-mail,
<info@iris.econ.umd.edu>.


V I T A   P r o j e c t s

AGREEMENT FOR NEW SATELLITE

On 17 November, VITA reached an agreement with Final Analysis, Inc.,
(FAI) to use FAISAT as VITA's replacement satellite. The agreement,
reached less than three months after the destruction of VITASAT-I during
its launch, once again put all elements of VITA's humanitarian mission
to bring communications services to developing nations back on schedule.

"The World Bank estimates it would cost $40,000 million per year for the
next six years to build up the basic telecommunications infrastructure
of the developing countries" says VITA's President Henry Norman. "In the
meantime, in some developing countries telecommunications are so poor
that there is less than one line per 1,000 people and there are no links
between the capital cities and rural areas. The agreement that VITA has
reached with FAI is just one more step in VITA's strategy to overcome
some of these telecommunications inadequacies and ensure that the global
information society that everyone is talking about becomes truly
global."

Other ways in which VITA is working to use low-cost nonconventional
communications systems to solve the developing world's communications
problems include terrestrial packet-radio systems and two-channel trunk-
ing repeater systems.

"VITA's terrestrial packet-radio systems allow computers to communicate
with other computers in remote areas by radio" says Norman. "The systems
allow the transmission of either voice or data. VITA has already
installed them to meet the communications needs of the Ministry of
Health in the Philippines, the UN Development Programme in Sudan, and
Madagascar's protected-area park system."

The two-channel trunking repeater system is a new area of activity for
VITA. Its purpose is to provide low-volume, high-grade voice communi-
cation between distant sites. VITA recently finished designing such a
system for the Honduran Ministry of Health and installation will start
in the next couple of months.

Information: Gary Garriott <garyg@vita.org>


A n n o u n c e m e n t s

MONITORING OF THE ENVIRONMENT

EnviroAnalysis'96 will be the first international biennial conference
and exhibition designed to attract scientists, technologists and man-
agers who are interested in all aspects of all areas related to chemical
measurement and monitoring of the environment. Because the emphasis is
on applied methods, the meeting will be especially valuable to govern-
ment, industrial, and testing laboratory workers. The conference will
take place in Ottawa from 13 to 16 May 1996.

The technical program will include spoken and poster presentations in
such areas as sampling, laboratory audits and accreditation, laboratory
automation, extraction and digestion techniques, and separation and
detection methods, as well as environmental reference materials. Also
included will be sessions specific to such environmentally significant
materials as pesticides, dioxins, and lead, as well as microorganisms.

Information: Robert Burk, EnviroAnalysis'96 Secretariat, Chemistry
Department, Carleton University, 1125 Colonel By Drive, Ottawa, Ontario,
K1S 5B6 Canada; tel. +1 (613) 520-3841, fax +1 (613) 788-3841; e-mail
<rburk@ccs.carleton.ca>.

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DevelopNet News is an electronic newsletter published monthly by Volun-
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