2010 Spring Symposium

 
Alessan­dro Fal­di
Exxon­Mo­bil Research & Engi­neer­ing Com­pa­ny
1545 Route 22 East
Annan­dale, NJ 08801
Alessandro.​Faldi@​ExxonMobil.​com


The pre­sen­ta­tion first high­lights ExxonMobil’s Out­look for Ener­gy, which reflects an assess­ment of glob­al sup­ply and demand through 2030 based on the under­ly­ing fac­tors that are shap­ing impor­tant ener­gy chal­lenges around the world. As always, the Out­look for Ener­gy focus­es on sev­er­al key areas of inter­est, which this year will include grow­ing trans­porta­tion and pow­er gen­er­a­tion demands as well as the out­look for ener­gy-relat­ed CO₂ emis­sions.

Eco­nom­ic progress and grow­ing pop­u­la­tions, espe­cial­ly in devel­op­ing coun­tries, will dri­ve ener­gy demand approx­i­mate­ly 35% high­er in 2030 ver­sus 2005. This demand increase is antic­i­pat­ed despite sub­stan­tial effi­cien­cy gains, which are expect­ed to accel­er­ate as new tech­nolo­gies are devel­oped and deployed.

Ris­ing trans­porta­tion needs will increase relat­ed ener­gy require­ments approx­i­mate­ly 40% by 2030, even as light-duty vehi­cles with much bet­ter fuel econ­o­my pen­e­trate the mar­ket. The rise in trans­porta­tion demand will be met pri­mar­i­ly by oil, which will pro­vide close to 95 per­cent of all trans­porta­tion fuels in 2030.

As economies grow, glob­al demand for elec­tric­i­ty is pro­ject­ed to increase 75 per­cent by 2030. Con­sis­tent with this pro­jec­tion, ener­gy for pow­er gen­er­a­tion is expect­ed to remain the largest and fastest grow­ing seg­ment of glob­al demand, dri­ven in large part by increas­es in Asia Pacif­ic. Meet­ing the expect­ed world­wide growth in pow­er demand will require a diverse set of ener­gy sources. Today coal is dom­i­nant and will retain the largest share glob­al­ly through 2030; how­ev­er, nat­ur­al gas, nuclear, and renew­ables will all gain mar­ket share.

In the sec­ond part of my talk, I’ll describe that meet­ing this ener­gy demand requires an inte­grat­ed set of solu­tions, includ­ing expand­ing all types of sup­ply, improv­ing effi­cien­cy, and mit­i­gat­ing green­house gas emis­sions. I’ll touch on exam­ples of how tech­nol­o­gy will play a crit­i­cal role in meet­ing these chal­lenges, and dis­cuss ExxonMobil’s alliance with a lead­ing biotech com­pa­ny, Syn­thet­ic Genomics Inc., to research and devel­op next gen­er­a­tion bio­fu­els from pho­to­syn­thet­ic algae.

Speaker’s Biog­ra­phy Alessan­dro Fal­di — Alessan­dro has a Lau­rea in Chem­i­cal Engi­neer­ing from the Poly­tech­nic of Milan, Italy, and a Ph. D. in Chem­i­cal Engi­neer­ing from the Uni­ver­si­ty of Min­neso­ta. He joined Exxon Chem­i­cal Com­pa­ny in 1994 as a research engi­neer at the Bay­town Poly­mers Cen­ter, Exxon Chem­i­cal Tech­nol­o­gy, where he held tech­ni­cal posi­tions in mate­ri­als char­ac­ter­i­za­tion, advanced char­ac­ter­i­za­tion and prod­uct devel­op­ment.

In 2000, Alessan­dro moved to Exxon­Mo­bil Chemical’s head­quar­ters in Hous­ton, Texas where he held mar­ket plan­ner and mar­ket devel­op­ment posi­tions in the Polypropy­lene busi­ness.

In 2005, Alessan­dro returned to Chemical’s Tech­nol­o­gy in Bay­town, Texas to become Pro­gram Leader of a break­through team that devel­oped advan­taged tech­nol­o­gy for Exxon­Mo­bil Chemical’s spe­cial­ty busi­ness.

In 2007, he was appoint­ed Cor­po­rate Pro­grams Port­fo­lio Man­ag­er in Cor­po­rate Strate­gic Research, Exxon­Mo­bil Research and Engi­neer­ing Com­pa­ny and is respon­si­ble for man­ag­ing emerg­ing-oppor­tu­ni­ty pro­grams that sup­port the Corporation’s gen­er­al inter­est.