The photo is sourced from sbras.info
Academician Valentin Parmon, the Chairman of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, was the first to speak in the videoconference format. In his report, he described the link between catalysis and power industry, by demonstrating in detail the experience of the researchers of the Federal Research Center “Boreskov Institute of Catalysis SB RAS” in this field of science. Starting his lecture, the academician emphasised a widespread use of catalysts and their popularity in various industries.
“The term catalyst is purely chemical, first introduced by Jens Jakob Berzelius, a great Swedish chemist, in 1836. Explaining the catalysis essence to non-specialists in chemistry, he compared the catalyst with a magic wand allowing us to get the desired product once the wand touches a certain substance. Catalysis is a way to control the speed and direction of chemical transformations with catalysts. Catalytic technologies enable production of high-quality products with high added value and use of available raw materials, help to minimise energy costs and resolve environmental issues,” said V. N. Parmon.
As the scientist says, there is a traditional interaction between catalysis and power industry, which is mainly the basis of motor fuel production, preparation of non-traditional hydrocarbon raw materials for further processing and solution of environmental problems. The IC SB RAS has been dealing with all these issues. The Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences is proud of commissioning the first line of the largest post-Soviet plant for production of modern catalysts for oil refining in Omsk. The plant is able to fully ensure Russia’s import independence in terms of strategic catalysts. This will allow the country to receive any kind of fuel. The fundamentals of all technologies used at such plants were developed by the IC SB RAS. Valentin Parmon stressed that in the 21st century, unconventional renewable energy sources are also gaining high significance, and their efficient use often depends on the widespread use of catalytic processes.
In his speech, V. N. Parmon touched upon the works performed by the recently deceased Director of the Institute of Carbon Chemistry and Chemical Materials Science RAS (FRC CCC SB RAS), scientific director of the FRC CCC SB RAS, chief researcher of the IC SB RAS Academician Zinfer Ismagilov. “Z.R. Ismagilov was one of the main developers of the processes ensuring environmental cleanliness. In particular, he created the technology making possible purification of primary hydrocarbon gases by extracting large amounts of hydrogen sulfide from them. Today this method is used on an industrial scale in Tatarstan, but we hope that its application areas would expand,” the scientist said.
The lecture of Academician Sergey Alekseenko, Scientific director of the Kutateladze Institute of Thermal Physics was devoted to the mechanisms of relationship between climate, the ozone layer and power industry. “Now we must take fundamental measures to understand how to develop the energy sector. It is not only global warming, which is the problem. Climate and, more specifically, greenhouse gases strongly influence the ozone layer. This impact is so significant that we should not consider the ozone layer and global warming separately. There are factors influencing climate change, including technogenic activity, the greenhouse effect, tropospheric aerosols, volcanic activity, solar activity, and some others. We should also take into account the type of this impact and the time scales. Now we are interested in the framework within 100-200 years,” the scientist said.
According to Academician Alekseenko, every year, an additional ten billion metric tons of carbon are emitted into the atmosphere because of fossil fuels combustion, leaving about half of it there. According to the scientist, this is the main reason for the global warming onset.
“The problem of the ozone layer damage is even more complex than global warming. The reason for ozone destruction in the stratosphere and formation of ozone holes is production and use of freons – saturated halogen-containing hydrocarbons, which release chlorine and bromine making a destructive effect on the Earth’s ozone layer. The effect of the middle range of ultraviolet frequencies is also negative,” the academician added.
Speaking about the power industry problems, S. V. Alekseenko expressed an opinion that there is no need for mankind to give up coal and gas, but it is necessary, where possible, to switch to renewable sources of energy.
The plenary session was concluded by Academician Alexey Kontorovich, the Head of the Trofimuk Institute of Oil and Gas Geology and Geophysics SB RAS. He focused on a comparative critical analysis of the available contradictory approaches to the global energy development in the 21-st century.
“Instead of one predominant type of energy, which was coal at the beginning of the 20th century, today humanity consumes a wide range of energy resources. This is the main pattern of modern development. The search for additional sources of energy for the 20th-century energy sector was very typical at that time. Relative to the other resources, the use of coal declined over the decades from 96% to about 23% of the total share of all fossils. Oil and gas, hydro and nuclear energy began to show the leadership. In absolute terms, none of these energy sources has been reduced in consumption, none has been lost,” the scientist said.
Reflecting on global energy in the 21st century, A.E. Kontorovich touched upon the development of alternative energy sources, including solar or wind energy, and noted significant results achieved in this area. However, according to the academician, the use of traditional energy has remained almost the same.
“Over the past century, mankind has increased energy consumption tenfold, but it was distributed extremely unevenly: 12% of the world’s population, i.e. developed countries, spent 80% of all energy, and developing countries, including China, India and the African continent states – the rest. By the end of this century, the world’s population will exceed eleven billion people, so we must realise that it is impossible for humanity to reduce energy consumption. Of course, it is necessary to develop alternative energy sources, but traditional energy must not be abandoned – it must be made more environmentally friendly: get rid of carcinogens and reduce carbon dioxide emissions. Researchers should pay special attention to environmentally friendly technologies so that it becomes possible to reduce a negative impact on the atmosphere when processing traditional resources. Today, the central task of science and technology should be increase in efficiency of energy production from traditional energy resources. In this case, it is necessary first of all to involve the state, and then business,” concluded A. E. Kontorovich.
