Assignment 2

Discuss the societal impact of a major national program to develop synthetic fuel (liquid
and gaseous) from coal. (It has been estimated that to reach the level of supply equal to the
imports from OPEC countries would require over 50 installations, each costing several
billion dollars)
There are lots of Pros and Cons in developing synthetic fuel. The societal impact
that it brings, especially when it is a major national program will be discussed
further here in this blog.
Among the benefits are:
a) JOB OPPORTUNITIES
The development of synthetic fuel will surely require lots of new
infrastructures and research, thus creating new job opportunities for the
people. This can certainly be a catalyst for the economy of the country grows.
For example, in Malaysia, the creating of their own brand of national car has
created lots of jobs for their people. The manufacturing process of building a
car requires lots of parts. Meaning that a lot of people will be involved in the
process thus creating lots of jobs

b) NEW MARKET
As of now, synthetic fuel is not widely used due the easily available crude oil.
Thus, by developing this branch of energy, there can a lot of advantages by
being one of the first movers in the market. Though there has been some
objection due to the steep price needed to extract these fuel, a recent
Princeton article suggested that if the price of crude oil per barrel stays within
the 60 -100 per dollar, the synthetic fuel can still be productive.

c) REDUCING GREENHOUSE EMISSION

In many ways synthetic fuels are cleaner than petroleum fuels. The
contaminants that exist in the petroleum fuel do not exist in the synthetic
fuels. The heavy metal and sulphur are all taken out before the fuel being
shipped out. Though synthetic fuel does use coal as one of its ingredient, it
also uses lots of plants. These plants are certainly not food materials as this
will hurt the food industry; instead these plants are grows especially for
synthetic oil production. These plants will absorb CO2 as it grows and thus
help reducing the greenhouse effect

d) REDUCING DEPENDENCY ON OTHER COUNTRIES

For a country that does not produce oil, it will certainly be dependent on
others country for their oil consumption and it is certainly no secret that fossil
fuel is widely used from power generation to transportation. There will be lots
of disaster should the supply chain is interrupted. Thus, by developing
synthetic fuel program, a country can be truly independent from others and
will have no limitations in developing itself further.

Cons of synthetic fuel:

a) High cost
The researchers found that the largest contributor to the price of synthetic fuel would be
the cost of building the plants, followed by the purchase of biomass and then electricity.
The cost could be much lower if plants eliminated biomass and used only coal and
natural gas to run the process.
b) Not necessarily
Petroleum and natural gas are readily available, relatively cheap and likely to remain that
way for a considerable time yet and also the technology of synthetic fuels is not reliable
as natural gas.
c) Hazardous and inconvenient
A sizable increase in the use of coal is hazardous to the environment and human health
such as water pollution, excessive carbon dioxide at atmosphere, etc. Solid fossil fuels are
energy of the past, not of the future. In this modern era, science should move in one
direction like from atom, solar energy, genetic engineering of biomass resources. Also,
dealing with solid fossil fuels which is bulky and dirty is not so convenient.
d) Less skilled workers in synthetic fuel field

Even synthetic fuel is not a new idea anymore; nevertheless this concept has not been
wholly used yet. Thus, most people think that this field will not be a great deal in the
future in which has caused less people to be interested in majoring in this scope.
Synthetic fuel can still be considered as a new development in the field because research
and investment still need to be done in order to make the production economically viable.
Because the number of the workers that specialized in this field is less, the development
of the synthetic fuel is not expected as it should be.

e) Less effective due to conventional fuel still can be used

People do not feel intimidated when using familiar things because they already have
experienced it and they were either pleased with the outcome or at least not horrified by
it. That is, they know, by using it, any intolerable outcome can be expected or dealt with.
Synthetic fuel has not been commercialized enough to gain peoples trust to use it and
also people will think why the need to use synthetic fuel while conventional oil is still
available and much cheaper than synthetic fuel. Since people have always been using
conventional fuel, they might not be ready to use synthetic fuel due to their expectations
on bad outcomes.

Do you feel there is a basic difference in the perception by society of the impact of a
synthetic fuel program compared with the impact of nuclear energy? Why?
Yes, there is a basic difference in the perception by society of the synthetic fuel and nuclear
energy. The reasons are as followed:
a) Negative mind set of society about nuclear energy
Society's mindset about nuclear energy is focusing only on bomb as a weapon. Besides,
the way nuclear energy projects are implemented makes it difficult for civil society to
feel associated with its benefits, and thereby to accept its risks. Nuclear energy projects
give an image of benefiting only companies, utilities, and their shareholders, while
society, especially local population, is subjected to the burdens and risks associated with
the construction and operation of industrial facilities. Furthermore, irresponsible
company that release nuclear radiation around the surrounding lead people to thinks that

there are no benefits of implementing the nuclear as an energy resource .In addition, there
is no alternative from the company that run the nuclear project to avoid the bad effects of
nuclear on environment and people health.

b) Fear the possibility of nuclear plant leakage

Radiation that comes from plant nuclear leakage can cause cancer (although it is a very
low risk) and that might involve pain and suffering so people fear it. As we know,
radiation is spreading around and risking people to have disabled children. Beside,
nuclear plant is easy to leakage and explodes if there is no proper method and procedure
to handle nuclear project. For the financial aspect, society has to spend their money in
order to obtain some treatments for the illness that come from the nuclear radiation.

c) Fear of nuclear accident

Society is so struck by fear with anything related to nuclear power. This is due to the fact
that in recent decades, many catastrophic nuclear accident leads to mega devastation and
nuclear pollution that contaminated the area surrounding the accident for hundreds of
years to come and not to mention genetic mutation to humans and animals living near the
area of accident. Due to these past experience such as in Chernobyl and Fukushima,
society in still skeptical and struck by fear to the usage of nuclear power as alternative
source of power. Compared to synthetic fuel program, nuclear power can leads to
catastrophic accident and cost lives of the present and the future. Society has perception
that if there were to be any accident caused by synthetic fuel program sites, it still would
not be as dangerous and catastrophic that of nuclear plant.

d) Lower danger and occurrence of synthetic fuel program accident

Compared to nuclear energy program, synthetic fuel program is much more accepted by
the society, due to the fact that till now, there are no incident involving synthetic fuel
program and if there are to be, it does not leads to big damage and impact such as nuclear
plant accident. Society feels that the risk and danger is far lower than that of nuclear
energy program. For instance nuclear accident would bring damage to the surrounding of
the environment for a long time and far too many people would be affected by this. The
danger is much more than that of synthetic fuel program site. Till now, there are not much
incident involving synthetic fuel program site, and society more accepting it compared to
nuclear energy program.