Russia has about world peat reserves
During Soviet times, the peat industry was on the rise. To date, peat heating has survived only in some regions. The government stopped relying on benefits 10 years ago. It is possible to breed another tale about how indifferent officials kill the heritage of their ancestors, but it is more and more difficult at a party. The Soviet peat industry died for the same reason as the tapestry and rope manufactories. But the richest deposits of peat could indeed be of great use to Russia if the whole economy were different.
Curse of the Baskervilles
The “Decree on the development of peat fuel” was issued by the Bolsheviks in 1918, when, naturally, there were more important things to do. On the other hand, the country lived without electricity, and even at the end of the 1920s, in the apartment of Bulgakov’s physiologist Professor Preobrazhensky, it went out “accurately twice a day.” There will still be no gas or oil production north of Tyumen. Peat – it is always at hand in almost any large size. Lenin said so: “In peat is our salvation. This peat is lying next to those factories that are currently standing.
Back in the 19th study, people thought of using electricity from peat using a retort. From 100 kg came out from 20 to 28 cubic meters of gas – not very much. You can also fertilize the soil with peat. And already in the 1930s, Soviet thermal power plants produced 40% of all Soviet energy! After the war, the entire mining infrastructure and generating stations were restored in double volume: in 1944, production amounted to 21.5 million tons of peat, and by 1980 – already 50 million tons. But at that time, Urengoy was already working at full capacity, and gas pipelines covered the entire country and “left” to Europe.
Peatlands were developed in 37 regions, there were 220 specialized enterprises in the industries. Approximately half of the production in boiler houses, the second half went to emissions. Another thing is that all this was already done on subsidies, which disappeared in the 1990s. Then the management itself sank into oblivion.
Could it be otherwise? It looks like it doesn’t. The releases of removable agricultural production in the Non-Black Earth region collapsed four times: state farms went bankrupt, cows got meat. What kind of peat is here, what are the suggestions? By the early 1990s, Russia did not even have the money to pay for the freight of ships that imported Canadian grain. Nevertheless, the sectoral ones, which had effective lobbyists, managed to get billions from the budget. Where are the lobbyists at the peat? And what kind of business will go to the peat administration if it is possible to sell vodka and privatize oil wells?
In the 2000s, when the economy was more or less moving, peat deposits were en masse ranked among the lands of the Forest Fund and water bodies. To obtain a license to develop them, the investor must change the structure of the land. Dante would not find a place in the circles of hell. Crisis of 2008–2009 finished off the remnants of the peat industry, lowering production to 1 million tons – 50 times less than under the USSR. It was at this place, having reached the bottom, the government of the Russian Federation thought about how to return the peat to its previous positions. According to the initial fashion, a “promising fuel source” is selected in the energy measurement base for the period up to 2030: “After an increase in peat production and the achievement of a technological peat industry, its possible use in thermal power plants.” A lofty task has been set: to increase the share of peat energy in the fuel segment from 1–2% to 8–10%.
Nothing of the sort happened. Peat thermal power plants are put on a par with “windmills” and other benefits: budget benefits, subsidies, and sales guarantees have gone. But there is a problem: in order for a thermal power plant to work on peat, as a rule, it must be built from scratch, because the Soviet infrastructure is completely ruined. Today, only 2 large power plants are peatted: Kirovskaya CHPP-4 in the Kirov region and Sharyinskaya CHPP in Kostroma.
But an even more serious trouble lies elsewhere: the official sees only tasks lowered from above. And how can you increase the profitability of peat in the energy sector, if it is objectively several times inferior in terms of profitability not only to gas, but also to coal? And while the bureaucrats pull the statistics on the globe, Russia risks sleeping through the “peat revolution”.
Milk without a cow
The American professor Lauren Graham once said this well. Russia, they say, always needs milk without a cow. Russians are great at inventing, but they don’t know how to implement. More precisely, our economy is not suitable for this. Our ministers came across the ocean in the 2000s: to calculate, not to regret any income, to make nanotechnologies for us, like you have. And it is not at all demanding that it is not necessary to import machine tools, but all of America: in a free market where investors need new technologies, protection of free property, control of corruption and crime, a judicial system where the accused has a chance to justify himself and prove his innocence.
Graham noted: “Russia launched an artificial Earth satellite for the first time, but today it has less than 1% of the international telecommunications market. Russia was the first to create electronic digital computers in Europe by the hands of Sergei Lebedev, but who sells Russian computers today? And here’s another example that’s not well known at all: the oil industry has experienced a revolution in hydraulic fracturing technology in recent years. But no one remembers that this process was invented by the Russians. In Soviet scientific articles of the early 1950s, absolutely, 100%, they depicted the process of hydraulic fracturing of an oil reservoir. Nobody has done anything with this technology.”
And we know why: the ball was ruled by the Ministry of Oil Industry of the USSR, near which Samotlor was gushing like a fountain. Who will pick out the crumbs from the lances there? Freelancers, no? With peat, a similar story: officials are addicted only to the type of fuel like charcoal. Although this has not been the case for a long time.
In highly developed Finland, annual production is 15 million tons of peat, that is, 35% of the total production. At the same time, the Finns used only 1% of their swamps – the coast of nature. Peat covers 7% of requirements in Europe, 60 CHPs are in operation. The secret is simple: burning gas or fuel oil, of course, is more efficient, but peat does not need to be transported far, there is no need to build power lines for the nearest ones (in Russia, hundreds of various state unitary enterprises master the budget on this). Of course, you can’t feed Helsinki like that, but for a consumed city, the best solution is to grow a boiler house, and fuel from a nearby swamp. By the way, unlike the same coal, there is practically no harmful effect of peat – organic matter, after all.
It seems that the idea was created for Russia with its vast expanses. Over the years of promises, our gas power has experienced gasification of slightly more than half of the country’s territory. Within the 30-40% level, some regions are excluded from the coverage of federal programs. And they are unlikely to be: vast territories in the North, Siberia and the Far East are cut off from large cities, and it is not possible to develop them every year and in more well-fed times. In addition, gas tariffs have grown tenfold over 20 years, and the price of electricity due to loss can differ significantly: for example, in Yakutia, a kilowatt-hour is half as expensive as in Moscow. Although coal for the capital’s thermal power plants is transported from Kuzbass across the country.
Meanwhile, the use of peat in Russia does not even require foreign technologies that fall under the sanctions. Back in 2012, scientists from Krasnoyarsk not only patented, but also put into practice the revolutionary extraction of gas from peat. The return is obtained as the privatization of coal. Convert a boiler room from fuel oil to peat, which takes 3 weeks. Due to the difference in tariffs, these costs pay off in 3 years.
But it’s not just about energy. In the West, a multi-billion dollar business has grown from peat to produce refined biofuels in the form of fuel pellets and briquettes. Pellets allow you to reduce the consumption of valuable wood, even in the fireplace they burn stably and more efficiently than a conventional field. In Tver, on the basis of the nearest mathematical district, the East European Institute of Peat Business, where there is a development for 70 types of products. For example, a humus ameliorant that can effectively combat land desertification and clean up environmental pollution. Special additives from peat are made almost paid. Moss residue is also an excellent absorbent to help pick up oil from spills. Unfortunately, only the use of peat as a cat litter is heard.
“Peat can be used to make excellent soils and composts, as well as products, sorbents, dyes, bitumen,” says Oleg Misnikov, head of the department of geotechnology and development of peat deposits at Tver State Technical University. – They even invented a powder, which, when added, does not clump with cement. When dissolved in swamp waters, phenols exhibit an undesirable environment, therefore, healing peat muds are found when viewing skin diseases and in cosmetics. The Indians used peat as diapers for newborns, and in our cafe, a student doctorate defended her bachelor’s degree in peat diapers. The strength of building blocks based on peat allows you to build load-bearing walls of cottages. In this case, the so-called effect of a wooden house arises – cool in summer, warm in winter.
Today, peat caused discomfort among Muscovites in 2010, when peat bogs burned in the Moscow region, covering the capital with suffocating smog. Another question: why did this happen? How can a swamp burn? It’s very simple: for the subsequent extraction of peat, the swamps were drained, thrown away, then almost all the foresters were captured. Peatlands developed by demand do not burn – the same Finns. And who is ultimately to blame: peat or smart officials? The latter, during the debriefing, gave rise to an oil illusion – to fill all the peatlands with water again.
Although the swamps will be enriched with a four-meter layer of industrial peat – take it and develop it even tomorrow, it will be enough for 20 years. Explored reserves can only be found in the Tver region for one and a half thousand years. All of Russia has about the world’s peat reserves – of course, this is the first place in the world. But in the Land Code there is no concept of “peat birthplace” – there are only the terms “bog” and “wetland”.