Biography

Professor Dr. Aminul Islam

(BAAS President: 1989-1994)

 

 

 

Professor Dr. Aminul Islam was born on 1st January 1935 in Comilla, Bangladesh. He obtained B.Sc. (Hons.) in Chemistry and M.Sc. in Soil Science in 1954 and 1955 respectively from Dhaka University and Ph.D. in Soil Science from Michigan State University, USA in 1962.

Professor Islam started his career as a Lecturer in 1956 and became Professor of Soil Science Department of Dhaka University in 1973. He was the Vice Chancellor of National University from 20th October 1996 to 19th October 2000 and the founder Vice Chancellor of Daffodil International University (DIU) from 1st January 2002 to 19th April 2011. He is the Emeritus Professor of DIU since 20th April 2011. His fields of specialization are Soil Chemistry, Fertility and Plant Nutrition.

Professor Islam was the President of Soil Science Society and Fellow of Bangladesh Academy of Sciences. He is the recipient of US Government‟s  Fulbright,  SEATO  and  DAAD  Fellowships.   He  was awarded President‟s Gold Medal, awarded jointly Bangladesh Academy of Sciences Gold Medal and Third World Academy of Science Gold Medal and Independence Day Gold Medal

 

Presidential Address

16 July 1990

Energy Options

 

Honourable Chief Guest, Vice President, Mr. Moudud Ahmed; Honourable Ministers, Your Excellencies;

Distinguished Delegates from Home and Abroad, Assalamu alaikum.

 

We are very grateful to Honourable Vice President of the People‟s Republic of Bangladesh for gracing this occasion by his presence amongst us to kindly inaugurate this Conference as the Chief  Guest despite his many preoccupations. This clearly indicates his concern and patronization of the advancement of Science and Technology to build a self-reliant Bangladesh.

I am deeply grateful to my colleagues in the Bangladesh Association for the Advancement of Science for the great honour they have done me by unanimously electing me as the president of the Association for the years 1990 and 1991. I am fully aware of my short-comings and also of the high responsibility that this office put on me. I hope, however, that your active cooperation and good wishes will give me strength and courage to come up to your expectation and justify your choice.

In the face of devastating floods of 1987 and 1988. “Flood Management” was the theme of the last Science Conference. This time we have chosen “Energy Options” as the theme of the 15th Annual Bangladesh Science Conference. Therefore, I shall now briefly speak about our energy situation in Bangladesh.

 

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Bangladesh is densely populated with over 700 persons per square kilometer, predominantly rural and vast majority of its population live below subsistence level. With arable land being limited to about 9.3 million hectares and present population of about 110 millions forecast to grow between 1.8 and 2.2% per annum up to the year 2000, increase in food production and employment opportunities are inevitable for survival of the population. In order to increase food production, more intensive agricultural practices (irrigation, fertilization and cropping intensity) are to be adopted and associated social and institutional changes will be necessary. Employment opportunities in the agriculture sector are limited and the provision of new jobs for growing population should centre around industry and the cities. All these need energy.

Energy sources fall in two broad categories; commercial energy which is derived from sources such as coal, coke, oil products, natural gas and electricity involving a conversion process undertaken on an industrial scale, sold through organised markets and readjusted by the national accounts, and non commercial energy which is derived from natural and traditional sources, such as animal dung, branches, twigs, leaves and roots of trees, plant residues (straw, jute stick, baggas), crop residues (husk) and shrubs which do not appear in national accounting system. In developed countries, almost the entire energy consumption is supplied by commercial sources, while in developing countries, predominant portion of total energy consumption (50-80%) are met by non commercial sources. Bangladesh is no exception. It is estimated that in Bangladesh 25 percent of the total energy consumed is met by commercial fuels and 75 percent by non commercial traditional fuels. The growth in total fuel demand in three macro scenarios between 1990 and 2000 was projected as follows:

Annual Growth of Total Demand

(Percentage per annum)

1990-1995       2.45     2.48     3.31

1995-2000       3.15     3.79     4.48

1990-2000       2.80     3.31     3.89

 

Low     Medium           High

 

Compared with the potentially huge demand for energy, the energy resources of Bangladesh are relatively small. To date, only one oil field has been put to operation very recently with the capacity of 300 barrels per day. Hydro power potential (at present 250 MW hydro power station at Kaptai) despite the abundance of water, is limited. Coal exists as Jamalpur to the extent of perhaps 1 billion tons but the depth of the resources are 823-1057 meters and is overlain by highly productive agricultural land which limits the recoverable quantity to possibly less than 50 million tons and makes exploitation expensive and problematic. Recently a thick deposit (about 50m thick) of Gondwana coal has been discovered in the Parbatipur area at a depth between 190-350 meters but the extent of the field has yet to be established. Reserves of peat covering an area of 5400 km2 estimated at 600 million tons located in South West Bangladesh (including 8 million tons in Khulna and 125 tons in Faridpur) are also available. These are usually found under low productivity agricultural land with an average over- burden of 0.8 meters but again a number of technical  and economic problems must be resolved before these can be exploited to any significant extent. Natural gas, on the other hand exists in a relatively large amount and this is estimated to be 11 trillion cft. Two salient facts about these estimates should be noted. Firstly, only a little over one third of 11 trillion cft in existing fields has been proven and can thus be said to be available now and  secondly, no gas has yet been found in the west zone of the  country thus putting the development of this region at a disadvantage.

 

Biomass

About 80 percent of the energy supply in Bangladesh comes from biomass, while it provides only 6-13 percent of the total energy need of the world. A large increase in this energy source in our country could have a big impact on supplies. Of the total biomass amounting to slightly over 37 million tons, 25 million tons comes from agricultural residues and 6 or 7 million tons from wood fuel and animal dung per year respectively, 26.17, 2.75 end 4.09

 

million tons are used per year respectively for cooking, paddy parboiling and food processing industries in rural areas, while in urban areas 3.66 and 0.16 million tons are used for cooking and commercial units.

Biogas, as all of us know, is a kind of fuel gas obtained by anaerobic decomposition of animal and agricultural wastes such as cow dung, other animal manures, night soil, household garbage, water hyacinth, water weeds etc. Biogas has been successfully used as a source of energy in China and India. The technology is very simple and consists of preserving the wastes out of contact with air and collecting the gas from the top for use. The residue left after evolution of gas is used as a fertilizer for boosting crop production. Studies carried out at Fuel Research and Development Institute of BCSIR, Bangladesh Agricultural University (BAU), Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET) and Environment Pollution Control Board have demonstrated that biogas could provide a substantial energy relief for cooking, lighting, operation of pumps for irrigation, drying and processing of agricultural products and developments of agro industries in rural areas. Moreover, residues left after gas evolution is a good fertilizer.

 

Draft power

It is an important tool in agriculture and rural transport. There are about 17 million draft animals in Bangladesh, with a potential power of 380 MW, compared to total installed capacity of 2146 MW electricity in 1988.

 

Solar Energy

Bangladesh  being  situated  between  240  34  and  260  38  latitude north, is endowed with an abundance of sunshine during most of the year. The total energy reaching Bangladesh is 250109 MWh/year which is 105 times energy generated as electricity. In other words, a fraction of a percent of this energy is more than the total energy use of Bangladesh at the present time. A part of this

 

inexhaustible and pollution free energy is being used by nature to produce biomass, in salt making and in sun drying of grains, fruits and fishes. If an additional minute fraction of the incoming energy is utilized, the total energy scene of the country will change. Solar water heaters with auxiliary heating arrangements for cloudy days satisfactorily fulfill the need for hot water (60-1000C) in hospitals, hotels and textile industries. Technology has developed abroad to raise the temperature up to 3000C or more through solar energy for rural industries like paddy processing, tobacco curing and concentrating date palm juice for making gur, ample opportunities for using solar radiation exist. Solar cookers for community as well as for the family use have become acceptable elsewhere. Solar refrigeration and cooling, solar timber kilns, solar air heaters and solar distillation system for converting brackish sea water into potable water are available in India. A number of solar timber kilns are already in use in Bangladesh.

To meet small power demands at isolated locations photovoltaic cells have been found to be cost effective throughout the world. In a country like Canada, with low solar energy availability, there were between 600 and 1000 PV installations in 1982. For the islands of Bangladesh and for remote locations, solar electricity may be an obvious choice. Remote public call offices of the Telephone Department and Microwave Repeater stations may do well to replace inefficient small diesel generators having fuel supply problems by solar panels. In the mid ninetees PV module price should come down to $ (1-2)/ Wp or less and it should be economic to feed solar electricity to the grid in the western region of Bangladesh. It is possible to generate over 20 KWh of  electricity from a 1-Watt cell having only a ten year life time and the cost of generation would be less than half of the present cost of producing electricity in Western Bangladesh.

Solar electric cars that travel at speeds up to 129 Km/h on little more than a few horse power of energy has become a reality now in developed countries like Switzerland, Australia and USA.

 

Wind Energy

A study of wind speed data for Bangladesh shows that the speed is generally low (3-5 km per hour annual average). Wind mills may be useful on coastal areas with annual average speeds of 12-13 km per hour and for some island locations with fairly good speeds. However, the cyclones and norwesters pose a problem since a low cost wind mill structure fails. The wind speed is high during the monsoon months when solar radiation is low and hybrid generation of electricity using wind turbines and solar cells may be considered for coastal islands. Aerogenerators in Europe and America have operated successfully for several years up to a rated capacity of 200 KW. Bigger machines up to 3 and 4 MW capacities have been available. These are expected to be accepted for regular commercial use for producing electricity over a 20 year life at costs less than that for oil thermal stations. Machines for private generation of capacity between 10 KW and 100 KW are being used for house hold, farm and institutional purposes.

 

Nuclear Energy

In a world of approximately 5300 million people with increasing demands for energy, particularly in the Third World countries, the necessity of nuclear power appears to be obvious. Nuclear energy continues to grow very rapidly in several countries like Belgium, Finland, France, Japan and the USSR. France obtained 40 percent of the electricity from nuclear power in 1983 and is heading to 75 percent by the end of 1990.

One of the main obstacles to nuclear development in the Third World countries is its small size of electricity grids. Our country having a generation capacity of 2146 MW only and projected capacity of 5000 MW by the end of the century ought to introduce small or medium size power plants of 200-500 MW in the system. The cost of construction of such reactors per kilowatt will of course be higher than that of conventional 2000 MW plants.

Keeping in mind the size of the grid and the rise in demand, a 300- 400 MW plant may be constructed within the overall programme of setting up another plant of same size in the next few years. As the construction time for a nuclear plant is somewhat larger than

 

conventional power stations, if nuclear electricity has to be supplied to the grid by the year 2000 there is no time to lose in starting to implement a nuclear power project.

Contrary to general belief, nuclear power is, according to some experts, a cheaper way to produce electricity under conditions prevailing in the country. The technology is proven and nuclear power stations of size 300-400 MW are now available in the world market. Although the capital cost is high, the fuel cost is so low that generation cost is expected to be cheaper than for oil and coal- fired plants. Introduction of nuclear power will help prolongation of the life of gas reserves and also diversify electricity generation mix of the country.

The greatest difficulty faced of Bangladesh in introducing nuclear power is the high capital cost involving both foreign and local currencies. But if we think of the cost savings due to the use of nuclear fuel in place of oil, than the capital cost to be spread over 6/7 years, would not seam excessive. Since the nuclear power station is capable of generating power at a very high plant factor, repayment of the investment should also not be difficult.

 

Honourable Guests,

Against the limited resources of commercial energy, the demand for it has been growing very fast. The per capita consumption of commercial energy grew from 24kg oil equivalent in 1972 to 32.8kg in 1980 and 41.3 kg in 1985. Consumption level should further rise to 58.3 kg of oil equivalent by the end of 1990. In spite of the thrust on the development of commercial energy, rural population will continue to depend largely on traditional energy. Thus, energy options for Bangladesh range from commercial to non commercial sources and also solar and nuclear energy.

As the most important indigenous commercial energy resource of Bangladesh is natural gas, the main thrust of Bangladesh energy policy has been placed on the accelerated use of it in order to reduce the import of liquid fuel in meeting the energy demand. The

 

number of production of gas wells increased from 9 in 1973 to 21 in 1985 and production capacity doubled from 250 MMCFD in 1973 to 580 MMCFD in 1985. The share of indigenous energy sources among coal, petroleum products, natural gas and hydro power have increased from 32.2% in 1972/73 to 50.9% percent in 1984/85. In absolute terms, this represents a nearly fourfold increase in indigenous commercial energy supply. Concomitant with the increased production of natural gas, there has been extensive explorations to identify new gas deposits Discoveries since 1973 have contributed to only 1.4 trillion cubic feet to present total (proven, possible and probable) reserves of 11 trillion cubic feet. If the growth rate of gas consumption is 10% the proven gas reserve will last for 13 years according to a 1987 estimate. Taking into consideration also the hydro electric capacity, coal and peat reserves and the recently operated oil field, the total commercial energy resource available in Bangladesh is very limited. On the other hand, we are rich in solar energy. Biomass production is also not negligible and can be increased by a large amount.

 

 

Fellow Scientists,

The foregoing discussions lead to conclusions stated below which may be helpful in formulating a strategy for developing the energy sector.

 

Non-Commercial Energy.

⦁         Biogas technology should be popularized among village rich people possessing 5 to 6 cattle and capable of investing money on digesters.

 

⦁         At present a restriction on the use of fire wood in rural areas will be difficult, however a large increase in the yields of wood fuels may come if fast growing plants are grown on road sides, homesteads, hills and fallow lands. What is needed most is research to select the best plants and to motivate village people

 

and agricultural extension workers to cultivate those plants. Afforestation by the public sector must speed up as forests are being denuded of trees resulting in an ecological imbalance favouring the green-house effect.

 

An alternative approach for satisfying demands for biomass fuel is to improve its conversion efficiency. Improved chulas or cookers developed by BCSIR if popularised would conserve biomass since they are twice as efficient as the conventional units. Fuel woods which are mostly used in improved chulas form only a small part of the biomass. If plant residues of different types could be burnt efficiently the nation would have much greater fuel savings.

 

Commercial Energy

Dependence on imported oil should be reduced and existing and potential indigenous sources of energy, including gas, oil, peat and hydro electricity should be explored and fully exploited. Generation, transmission and distribution of electricity should be developed in a more integrated way. Nuclear power may be considered as a possibility for meeting electricity needs of the western part of Bangladesh.

 

Renewable and other sources of energy

Solar energy for generating electricity for multifarious used should be promoted. Possibility of the use of photovoltaic cells, wind and biomass in an integrated manner to generate electricity for lighting, pumping water for irrigation, small village (textile) industries and ice-making for preservation of fish and vegetables should be explored without any delay. The present research at DU, BCSIR, BAU and BAEC on generation of electricity using solar energy, thermal application of solar energy, biomass, minihydro, wind and river water flow should be intensified to arrive at viable technologies for rural Bangladesh. Programmes by BAU for improvement of