Wednesday, January 23, 2013

consolidation of various observations!

It has been a while since I last wrote here - and lots has happened! Really Lots!I am fully immersed and baptized in Natural Gas and have been involved in the whole nine yards- from wells to wheels! I have also completed a full year working in India and living in Mumbai! First things first - Natural gas is now unstoppable as a transport fuel- the big daddy of energy users- America- has finally warmed up to the idea- this means one thing- big money and capital- so if this trend can be sustained - unlike ethanol - we are in for a big change in acceptance, model availability and infrastructure. Capital spurts innovation and so we can finally hope to move way from age old systems to new natural gas transport solutions. So my hunch is that we will move away from engined made for gasoline and run on natural gas- to engines that were designed to run on a gaseous fuel! II feel Natural gas engines or may be micro turbines and fuel systems and filling technology will develop and evolve to give an experience far superior than todays converted low end machines. In essence you wont get an afterthought model with a riveted steel plate with the necessary kit specifications but a full fledged engineered machine - that was developed right from the start to run on CNG or LNG - depending on your need of city run or long haul transport! The change will be bigger than you can imagine because small towns will suddenly boom if they have shale rock or LNG terminals and there will be geopolitical energy production shift! There will be developments right from drilling safely to using efficiently- ins harp contrast from today! I have strong hope also for bio gas and bio CNG to transform rural developing countrysides and not just advanced nations like Germany and Sweden. I think Waste Management in USA has been quietly but surely making large strides o waste to energy and gas and the model will evolve and adapt- already 1 in 2 new garbage trucks run on natural gas in America! Early adopters will be large machines with access to gas like fracking tucks and gensets used in the drilling and transport of natural gas and even oil. The shift has been set in motion! Now to Mumbai - and an amazing experience of the road marathon! what stood out most was the amazing spirit of people - in a city too busy on a normal day to even stop and breathe- the crowd support and even the spirit of participation is AMAZING! I salute the spirit of the city and all those volunteers who came out - some spending their own money to provide the runners with beverages and glucose supplies in various forms and flavors. I also salute two men in particular who I had the honor to run with - one was a 67 year old gentleman by the name of Mr Kothari who finished the half in around 2:38 and another gentleman who was running the half with a blade right prosthetic - unfortunately I could not get his name during the run- but they were a true display of the strength of human spirit! My other comments of Mumbai - after living for one year are mostly negative and it is hard to be optimistic in a city bursting on its seams and torn by unnecessary politics. If industrial, financial and political power houses came together though- I dont think the problems are insurmountable! - Mostly one has to rethink some basic "accepted ideas" like traffic flow- stop lights (or the lack of respect for the red!), resource utilization - waste management - and waste to energy to name a few important points! We have some isolated models that work - but its time Mumbai- Navi Mumbai, Thane, Belapur, Panvel and all other nearby suburbs came together to improve the quality of life and reduce the pollution, scarcity, traffic indiscipline and various other issues that are slowly eating the good basic nature of people and destroying their natural spirit - a spirit that they displayed on the Mumbai Marathon day!