ABSTRACT
In scientifi c and technological terms the proximate future may well be a golden
age where tremendous possibilities appear to be within the reach of human inge-
nuity. More pointedly a growing and generally widespread awareness of the
shortfalls resulting from the utilization of fossil fuels, including the potentially
deleterious effects of the use thereof on the natural and human environment,
wedded to the equally pressing consideration of their intrinsically exhaustible
nature, has led efforts to be concertedly redirected, on a large scale and with
encouraging results, to the assessment of renewable resources as an emerging
source to fuel eventually global energy needs. Undoubtedly, even for reasons
explained later herein, efforts in this regard are likely to be multiplied in the
coming years.
