A delegation of Brazilian experts on an official visit to Pakistan
expressed their interest to enhance Pakistan’s ethanol productivity,
during a meeting with the officials of the Ministry of Industries here
on Monday.

They said there is a great potential for cooperation between the two
countries in the fields of ethanol production, renewable energy, hybrid
seed production, off-season vegetables production, bio fuel, resource
conservation and pests control technology. Talking with the delegation
Secretary Industries Aziz Ahmad Bilour said the government will
collaborate with Brazil for transfer of knowledge and technology to
enhance quality and productivity of ethanol.

The Brazilian delegation includes Project Analyst Brazilian Cooperation
Agency – ABC Bruno de Amorim Maciel, Expert on Genetic Enhancement
Gabriel Alves Maciel, Expert on Phytopathology Vanildo Alberto Leal
Bezerra Cavalcanti, and Expert on Technical Assistance and Rural
Extension Minucio Monteiro Filho.

He informed that there were 19 ethanol refineries in Pakistan which
produce about half a million tonnes of ethanol, 50 per cent of which is
non-fuel ethanol. He said there is an urgent need to improve the
efficiency of ethanol producing units as the products produced in the
country were not of premium quality. He said the government is
interested in getting technical assistance form Brazilian experts in the
upgradation of existing distilleries, pre-treatment of sugarcane
molasses so that it can be preserved for a longer time and use of
ethanol as a fuel in power stations.

He said the government initiated E – 10 scheme in which 10 per cent of
ethanol was to be blended with the traditional fuel for usage in
vehicles but this did not prove successful as ethanol left deposits were
damaging parts of engine and reducing efficiency. He sought short
duration technical training and fellowships in the Brazilian Ethanol
Training Institutes for technicians and scholars of Pakistan’s ethanol
industry.

Bruno said Brazil has an advanced ethanol producing technology and is
using 100 per cent ethanol in vehicles since the last 20 years. Pakistan
can greatly benefit from the Brazilian experience and expertise as it
has plenty of raw material required for this purpose. He assured his
government will look into the proposal for providing scholarships to
Pakistani engineers and technicians in ethanol technology as this will
also help in transfer of technology and knowledge.

Secretary Industries also sought Brazilian cooperation with the local
automotive industry for manufacturing of Flexible Fuel Vehicles (FFV)
using hydrous alcohol. It was also suggested that the Brazilian
companies should look for joint ventures for developing and marketing
ethanol products in Pakistan and in the international market.
Feasibility for diversification of ethanol use in the manufacture of
alco-chemicals and other sectors aside from transportation was also
discussed during the meeting.

News Source: Pakistan Today

In this regard a meeting was held between a Brazilian delegation and Aziz
Ahmad Bilour, Federal Secretary Ministry of Industries (MoI).

The members of Brazilian delegation included Bruno de Amorim Maciel,
project analyst (Brazilian Cooperation Agency-ABC), Gabriel Alves Maciel, (Expert on Genetic Enhancement), Vanildo Alberto Leal Bezerra Cavalcanti, (Expert on Phytopathology) and Minucio Monteiro Filho, (Expert on Technical Assistance and Rural Extension).

Representing the delegation Bruno said that there was a great potential for
cooperation between the two countries in the fields of ethanol
production, renewable energy, hybrid seed production, off-season
vegetable production, bio fuel, resource conservation and pests control
technology.

He said that Brazil had an advanced ethanol producing technology and was using 100 percent ethanol in the vehicles since last 20 years.

“Pakistan can greatly benefit from the Brazilian experience and expertise as it has plenty of raw material required for this purpose”, he added.

Aziz Bilour apprised the experts about the status of ethanol distilleries in Pakistan and said that there was an urgent need to improve the efficiency of ethanol producing units in Pakistan as the products produced were not of premium quality.

He informed the delegation that there were 19 ethanol refineries in Pakistan which produced about half a million ton of ethanol, 50 percent of which is the non-fuel ethanol.

He said that the Government of Pakistan initiated E- 10 Scheme in which 10
percent of ethanol was to be blended with the traditional fuel for usage in vehicles but this did not prove successful as ethanol left deposits damaging parts of engine and reducing efficiency.

He said that
the MoI was interested in getting technical assistance form Brazilian experts in the up gradation of existing distilleries, pre-treatment of sugarcane molasses so that it can be preserved for a longer time and use of ethanol as a fuel in power stations.

Bilour also floated the idea to explore opportunities to offer short duration technical
training and fellowships in the Brazilian Ethanol Training Institutes for our technicians and scholars in the Ethanol industry.

Minucio assured Bilour that his Government would look into the proposal for
providing scholarships to Pakistani engineers and technicians in ethanol technology, as this would prove a swift mode for transfer of technology and knowledge.

The MoI also proposed Brazilian cooperation with the local automotive industry for manufacturing of Flexible Fuel Vehicles (FFV) using hydrous alcohol.

Similarly, it was suggested by the Ministry to have joint ventures with Brazilian
companies for developing and marketing other products of ethanol in Pakistan and in the international market.

Feasibility for diversification of ethanol use in the manufacture of Alco-chemicals and
other sectors aside from transportation was also sought. (APP)

On 12 September Iran brought its first nuclear power plant in Bushehr online, connecting it to the country’s electrical grid. Iranian officials at the opening ceremony said that the 1,000 megawatt plant has begun generating electricity at 40 percent of its capacity and will reach full capacity by the year’s end following further testing.

Quite aside from demonstrating Iran’s touching post-Fukushima faith in nuclear energy despite being a seismically active country, Bushehr represents a Rorschach test of sorts for all the fears and anxieties in the Middle East, in which everyone looking at the facility has his preconceptions reaffirmed.

“Axis of Evil” charter member Iran insists that Bushehr represents the government’s determination to husband is vast oil reserves by promoting other energy sources, as its economy has hammered by more than three decades of U.S.-led sanctions.

Iran has been subjected to increasingly militant rhetoric from both Tel Aviv and Washington over its civilian nuclear energy program, with thinly veiled threats of possible military action if Tehran does not abandon its efforts, even though they are completely complaint under the terms of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), which Iran has signed and which Tehran pointedly underlines, it’s nemesis and harshest critic Israel has not.

Russia signed a $1 billion contract in 1995 for building the Bushehr plant and last month the country’s Rosatom supplied the power station’s uranium fuel. The United States urged Russia to delay the startup until Iran proves that it’s not developing nuclear weapons, to no avail, as Moscow replied that that the Bushehr project has been closely supervised by the U.N.’s International Atomic Energy Agency.

Russian officials said that Iran had signed a pledge to ship all the spent uranium fuel from Bushehr back to Russia for reprocessing, excluding the possibility that any of it could used to make nuclear weapons.

Russia has insisted that the Bushehr project is essential for persuading Iran to cooperate with the IAEA and fulfill its obligations under international nuclear nonproliferation agreements.

Many aspects of Iran’s uranium enrichment activities trouble the international community, so much so that in June the U.N. Security Council slapped a fourth set of sanctions on Iran over its nuclear program. The sanctions followed Iran’s refusal to halt uranium enrichment, a process which can be used for the production of fuel for power plants when uranium is enriched to a level of 3-4 percent purity, as well as material for nuclear warheads if enriched to more 90 percent purity. Equally worrying is the fact that Iran received its centrifuge designs from Pakistan, the world’s first Muslim nuclear state, which developed its own nuclear weapons in response to India’s weapon program.

Iran continues to insist that its nuclear program is purely peaceful, aimed at producing nuclear energy, but the United States and Israel in particular believe that Tehran’s real goal is to produce atomic weaponry.

And Israel has more reason than most to be concerned, as it developed its own nuclear weapons in the 1950s and 1960s at its Dimona reactor by hoodwinking the IAEA, a fact finally proven in 1986 by Israeli whistleblower Mordechai Vanunu, who leaked details of the program to Britain’s Sunday Times and was subsequently kidnapped back to Israel, tried on charges of treason and espionage and subsequently served an 18-year prison sentence. If any nation has a concept of how to covertly develop nuclear weaponry, it is Israel.

So, Bushehr finally comes down to seeing what you want to see there.

That said, international law is not, despite the efforts of the Bush 2 administration, the issue of a nation’s unilaterally “cherry picking” through intelligence for material supporting national agendas stands in stark contrast to building an international consensus for general behavior through the rule of law. Unilaterally ascribing the worst possible motives to a nation rather than letting international law resolve issues will eventually leave the globe in the jungle, with survival of the strongest.

Any Israeli strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities, unlike its attack on Iraq’s Osirak nuclear reactor in 1981 or its 2007 strike on reported Syrian nuclear facilities, will become an international incident, as at Buhshehr alone, according to Russian Federation Energy Minister Sergei Shmatko, “around 1,500 (Russian) people” now work at Bushsehr and “several hundred people – depending on our agreement with Iran – will be engaged in operating the plant.”

The world has uneasily lived with Pakistan’s nuclear “Muslim bomb” for 13 years. Whatever the reality of Iran’s nuclear program, if it does indeed mask a weapons component, why would Iran feel tempted to use it to strike Israel, as it would inevitably provoke massive retaliation from Israel’s nuclear arsenal, estimated at several hundred atomic weapons, deployed by a triad of aircraft, missiles and submarines.

To paraphrase Sigmund Freud, who famously observed, sometimes a cigar is just a cigar,” perhaps sometimes a nuclear power plant is just… a nuclear power plant.

Source: http://oilprice.com/Geo-Politics/Middle-East/Iranian-Bushehr-Nuclear-Plant-Comes-Online-World-Survives.html

By. John C.K. Daly of Oil Price

The proposal is a first step in the EU’s attempts to revamp tariffs
designed to help poor countries while protecting its own industrial
interests and formalise ties with trading partners. This reform is
expected to take until late 2013. Due to be unveiled Tuesday by EU trade
chief Karel De Gucht, the reform plan for the so-called Generalised
System of Preferences has already drawn criticism – from Europe’s
protectionist camp for extending tariff cuts but also from foreign
producers and EU importers.

“If adopted, this will cost Saudi, Malaysian, Argentine, Brazilian and
Russian exporters millions, as it will their customers in the EU,” said
Nikolay Mizulin, trade lawyer at international law firm Hogan Lovells.
Countries, including many poorer ones, which have already agreed trade
agreements with the EU will be excluded from duty breaks. So too will
states “classified by the World Bank as a high-income or an upper-middle
income country during three consecutive years,” according to the draft.

For about 85 countries that do qualify – including India and Pakistan –
lower duties will be extended. The plan raises the limit for how much a
country can export to the EU while still receiving low tariffs – from 15
percent of EU market share under the scheme to 17.5 percent. For
textiles – a sensitive sector given EU production – the ceiling will
rise from 12.5 to 14.5 percent. This benefits India in particular. The
plan foresees an emergency brake triggered by sudden import surges, but
it is unclear if this will appease EU industry.

Last week, senior EU officials called on De Gucht to lower the threshold
of imports that would trigger the brake – a demand that has been only
partially met in the proposal seen by Reuters. Most controversially, De
Gucht is set to announce wider access to a scheme that grants further
tariff cuts to vulnerable countries in exchange for a commitment to
international social and environmental laws. Under the proposal, imports
from Pakistan and Ukraine would both qualify for extensive tariff cuts,
raising concerns among EU textile and ethanol producers who compete
directly with producers in both countries.

If approved, tariff cuts will cost the EU about 2.97 billion euros in lost customs revenue, according to the draft.

Source : Pakistan Today

Both the leaders discussed important bilateral, regional and international
issues of high importance. Leoni has stressed that Pakistan has huge
potential in the field of agriculture but the problem was that it has
not introduced modern agricultural techniques. He highlighted that
Brazil produced huge amount of ethanol from sugarcane which has
decreased its dependency on petrol and price-hiking has also been
controlled. He also highlighted that production of sugarcane in both
Brazil and Pakistan was probably roughly on the same plane but Pakistan
had not developed its industry to produce ethanol from sugarcane.

It was also noted that if Pakistan developed its industry to produce
ethanol from sugarcane, it will help Pakistan to decrease its dependency
on petrol and it can easily control price-hiking and can give relief to
its nation.  He has also mentioned that in Brazil millions of vehicles
run on ethanol and in industrial processes it is a basic and vital
commodity.

Source: Pakistan Today

“We are very actively working on that to get a solution. Not all hope is vanishing,” EU Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht told the EU lawmakers. “At short notice (trade concessions are) the only way to do something for Pakistan,” he said. An original plan unveiled in October said duty suspensions – if approved unanimously by the WTO’s 153 members – would affect about 900 million euros worth of Pakistani exports to the EU and estimated that Pakistan could boost sales to the EU by 100 million euros.

Source: Pakistan Today

The final package is less extensive than the EU had hoped to agree but still covers 75 Pakistani exports – from cotton sheets to clothing and ethanol — which will be allowed to enter the EU duty-free from 2011, an EU spokesman said. The duty waiver now needs
approval from the World Trade Organisation and the European Parliament.
Following pressure from EU industries that feared losing market share to cheaper
Pakistani imports, the tariff suspensions will now apply for two years, with a third year only granted after an assessment, EU diplomats said. The compromise also sets a duty-free quota on the most sensitive products on the list: some fabrics, towels, women’s jeans and socks will lose their duty-free status if exports to Europe rise by more than 20
percent per year, diplomats say.

All remaining items may also lose their tariff suspension if there is a surge in their exports to Europe, under a safeguard mechanism whose method is yet to be agreed, diplomats
said. Finally, the compromise has cut the duty-free allowance of ethanol imports from Pakistan to 80,000 tonnes, from an originally proposed 100,000 tonnes, diplomats said.

“These adjustments are not expected to lower considerably the expected benefits for Pakistan’s flood-stricken economy,” said John Clancy, trade spokesman for the EU’s executive Commission, which drafted the original plans. But some EU diplomats warned that Europe’s concern for its own industries could undermine the credibility of its stated aim of using trade as a security and development tool.

“Some member states believe Europe has watered down its aid to Pakistan too much. Another involved in the negotiations said, “It’s not ideal, but at least we have a deal that we can put to the WTO.” The EU is drafting separate plans that could allow Pakistan access to long-term trade discounts from 2014 under the so-called GSP Plus regime, though that also faces opposition.

Source: Pakistan Today

The plant is powered by eight of GE Energy’s ecomagination TM-certified Jenbacher biogas engines.

The commercial start-up of sugarcane milling company Shakarganj Mills
Ltd.’s new biogas power plant in Jhang, Pakistan comes as the country is
working to overcome its current 3,500-MW energy shortage. The new plant
will generate enough power to support more than 50,000 homes in
Pakistan.

The new biogas plant also is providing a new reliable, on-site source of
power to help the mill and other industrial operations meet production
requirements and remain competitive.

The biogas used to fuel the Jenbacher gas engines is extracted from
spent wash — a residual of Shakarganj Mills’ ethanol production
operation that uses sugarcane molasses as a raw material.

As a renewable energy project, the plant is eligible for carbon credits
because it enhances energy efficiency at the mill and displaces the
national grid’s energy generated from fossil fuels. By using the biogas
instead of fossil fuels for power generation, the plant is expected to
produce approximately 20,000 tons of certified emissions reductions
(CERs) annually under the Kyoto Protocol. The expected income from these
CERs was instrumental in the customer’s financial decision making
process. The project will be registered with the UNFCCC by Carbon
Services Pakistan and First Climate AG.

“The project is Pakistan’s first sugarcane biogas power plant,” said
Mohammad Asghar Qureshi, Managing Director and Kashif Raza Kazmi,
General Manager (Project) of Shakarganj Mills Ltd.

“The plant is seen as a successful demonstration project for the region.
With 225 million litres of ethyl alcohol produced annually in Pakistan,
we expect many other distillery companies to install similar plants to
support the energy needs of the national grid.”

GE supplied Shakarganj Mills Ltd. with eight JGS 320 GS. B/L Jenbacher
units for a cogeneration plant, designed to support the mill’s on-site
power and heating requirements. Electricity from the 8-MW plant also is
being delivered to the national grid through a 22-year power purchase
agreement with the local grid operator. The estimated 8 MW of heat from
the engines’ exhaust gas and jacket water is used to support the
company’s distillery process.

“GE’s Jenbacher gas engines are known for their reliability, durability
and ability to operate on a variety of different fuels, making them a
popular on-site power solution for Pakistan’s industrial sector,” said
Prady Iyyanki, CEO of GE’s Jenbacher gas engine business.

“The Shakarganj Mills project underscores Jenbacher engines’ fuel
flexibility that will be needed to help address the country’s serious
energy challenges.”

The use of the mill’s waste biomass as a “free” and available source of
energy to generate power and heat helps reduce the facility’s overall
operational costs. In addition, the Jenbacher engines’ reliability
further enhances overall plant efficiency to make the project more
profitable for the operator.

In addition to the gas engines, GE also provided the gas train, biogas
compressor and biogas cooler for the gas dehumidification process.

GE’s Jenbacher gas engine local distributor M/s. Orient Energy Systems
provided the remaining auxiliary equipment including the cooling tower,
pumps, ventilation systems (including fans), and hot water-fired chiller
for cooling the biogas. The company also provided heat recovery from
jacket water system, exhaust, local installation, commissioning and
overall project consulting services. Orient Energy Systems also is
providing operation and maintenance support for the plant, while
Shakarganj Mills also installed a hydrogen sulfide (H2S) removal system.