Kamal Ghorui
Trump and Iran better make a deal soon, or your beer will cost quite a bit more. Not that beer comes from the Gulf. They hardly make any. And glass bottles – 80% customers prefer them to cans – are entirely homemade. Problem is, gas to fire glass furnaces is largely imported, and right now its supply is seriously tight. So, when you’re nursing a drink next time, just think of ways around this glass crisis. Because, there’s always a way.
Blockade of Hormuz has knocked out 20% of world’s oil and gas. Serious, but nothing compared with Japan’s conquest of SE Asia in 1942, which took out 90% of rubber supply. But then, US invented synthetic rubber, and others figured out ways to make rubber from two hardy plants – Russian dandelion and guayule shrub. Of course, when Japan was beaten, everybody went back to cutting forests and planting more and more rubber trees. But now, eco concerns have put guayule back under the spotlight. Tyres made from guayule rubber have been run at 305kmph, at Indycar.
For beer, a better way’s been around for decades: aluminium cans. Yes, aluminium needs 15x more energy to make, but you need only 11g of the metal to make a 330ml can, as against 200g glass for a bottle of the same volume. That’s an 18x weight difference. Lower freight costs, no breakage, faster and cheaper cooling, efficient recycling… And we are world’s second largest aluminium producer, after China.
We must make the most of our strengths. Gulf states became major aluminium producers, despite not having much ore, with their cheap gas-based electricity: energy makes up a third of aluminium production costs. Dubai has capitalised on its location to run the largest standalone sugar refinery, despite not growing any cane. And Brazil, biggest cane producer, has been running cars on cane-derived ethanol since the oil shocks of the 1970s.
Now, India’s mandated E20, and is planning for E85 and E100 fuels. In electric vehicles, lithium was beginning to look like the last word, but Chinese dominance has pushed research into sodium batteries. In electric motors, too, China’s control of rare earths has increased interest in induction motors. Glass bottles are a relatively minor problem.
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