[Env seminars] Feb 22 talk - China and Energy, Eric Larson, Princeton University

[Edward Cunningham]

This seminar may be of interest.  (Please forgive cross-postings.)

"Future Energy Technologies and Strategies for China"
A talk sponsored by the
MIT China Energy Research Group at the Industrial Performance Center

Tuesday, February 22
2:30pm
MIT's Muckley Building (E40), 4th Floor, Room 496
One Amherst Street, Cambridge, MA

Eric D. Larson
Princeton University, Princeton, NJ


The Chinese government's goal of building three more Chinas 
(quadrupling GDP) between 2000 and 2020 presents challenges and 
opportunities for the development of a sustainable energy system for 
the country.  Challenges include reducing the already-high cost of 
air pollution, stemming rapidly growing oil imports, continuing heavy 
reliance on the main domestic energy resource - coal, and (in the 
long term) limiting CO2 emissions.  The substantial expansion that 
will be required in China's energy infrastructure provides an 
economic opportunity for introducing new technologies to help address 
these challenges.  Drawing on results from Markal modeling studies, 
implications of China's future energy-technology choices will be 
discussed.  The modeling studies suggest that gasification of coal 
and biomass are key enabling technologies for a sustainable energy 
future for China.  Engineering and economic analysis of 
gasification-based processes for production of fuels and electricity 
will be discussed.


Dr. Eric Larson is a senior member of the Energy Systems Analysis 
Group at the Princeton Environmental Institute. (Until 2000, this 
Group was part of Princeton's Center for Energy and Environmental 
Studies).  He is also Affiliated Faculty with the Science, 
Technology, and Environmental Policy Program at Princeton's Woodrow 
Wilson School of Public and International Affairs.  His current 
research interests include engineering, economic, and policy-related 
assessments of advanced clean-energy systems, especially for electric 
power and transportation fuels production from solid carbonaceous 
fuels (biomass and coal).  Among his present activities, he is a task 
leader on a major multi-institution, multi-disciplinary project to 
assess the long-term sustainable potential for biomass energy in the 
United States.  Dr. Larson also co-leads an ongoing collaboration 
with colleagues at Tsinghua University (Beijing) that is exploring 
sustainable coal and biomass-based long-term energy strategies for 
China.

Dr. Larson has been with Princeton University since 1983.  He has 
degrees in mechanical engineering from Washington U. in St. Louis 
(BS) and the U. of Minnesota (MSE and PhD).

_______________________________________________________________
Edward Cunningham
Industrial Performance Center
MIT
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