Search

Bosnia and Herzegovina has substantial primary energy resources and its energy industry could be profitable. This chapter presents the current status of the energy sector and the data on primary energy resources, potentials, energy infrastructure, and the production and consumption of energy. A comparison of consumption with neighbouring countries and the world is shown, as well as some energy indicators. There are ambitious plans for electric power generation in Bosnia and Herzegovina and an overview of the capacities under consideration is presented.

The global energy demand of the different primary energy resources for the following years predicts that crude oil will continue to be the major energy resource of the future (Figure 1). However, a spectacular increase of natural gas demand is observed since the 1950’s, and in due course is expected to grow at a similar rate within the next two decades. This fact has inspired the interest in developing new processes and technologies to convert natural gas into liquid hydrocarbons and more valuable products. Moreover, the lack of heteroatoms, metals and aromatic structures makes natural gas an ideal feedstock to produce clean fuel for the future [1]. Saturated hydrocarbons are the main components of natural gas and crude oil and therefore their transformation into high valued products is of prime importance. Owing to the relatively inertness of alkanes, their activation usually requires high temperatures and the use of a bifunctional catalyst, in which a hydrogenating-dehydrogenating component performs the initiation step and then the olefinic intermediates further transform into the final products on the acidic component.

An electricity industry consists of primary energy resources, electricity producers, an electricity network and electricity consumers. In a competitive electricity industry, some or all of these participants function as independent commercial entities. Two important problems must then be resolved in the commercial arrangements between the participants: There is no cost effective means of storing electrical energy so that electrical energy can only be produced if it is immediately consumed. “Operation scheduling” can compensate for the lack of intermediate storage by coordinating participants’ decisions, but must take into account uncertainty and participant operating constraints. The resulting financial risk must be managed. Electrical energy flows in an network according to the laws of physics rather than commercial contractual arrangements. Also, the pattern of flow must lie within stability-related boundaries to maintain secure operating conditions. The location of a participant as well as the operation of the network and the behavior of other participants can affect his or her commercial opportunities.

The problems concerned with the transportation and storage of hydrogen, discussed in the last chapter, emphasize that resource/reserve production figures of the primary energy sources are subject to amendment, through alterations in technology and economics, all along the chain from resource-in-place to end-use. Transportation and storage are important considerations for all primary energy resources.