INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION. JOINT ACTIVITIES.

The International Ecoenergy Academy (IEA) collaborates with scientists and specialists from USA, Great Britain, Germany, France, Russia, Iran, Turkey, Canada, Norway, Spain, Italy, Denmark, Lithuania, Georgia, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, and Kirghizstan.

In 1997 on the base of partnership between the International Ecoenergy Academy and Company ERT Ltd. (Scotland) an unique scientific-research centre - the Caspian Environmental Laboratory (CEL) was established.

The laboratory is equipped to supply the increasingly wide range of analytical services required to meet developing environmental standards in the Caspian region.

CEL employs chemists, ecologists, toxicologists and taxonomists trained to carry out a wide variety of environmental work. The skills of the personnel are supported by technical resources including:

• Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry
• Atomic absorption spectroscopy
• High pressure liquid chromatography

CEL offers a full range of survey and monitoring services for coastal, offshore and deep sea environments:

• Survey design and management
• Vessel procurement and sampling
• Marine benthic macrofaunal taxonomy and community analysis
• Mapping of contaminant distribution
• Survey date interpretation and presentation
• Data compilation and statistical processing

The facility includes an ecotoxicological laboratory suit designed to provide marine toxicity testing of chemicals, wastes and sediments to Caspian, OSPARCOM, ISO, OECD and ASTM guidelines

Standard test methods include:

• Acute aqueous phase toxicity tests with fish, invertebrates and phytoplankton
• Acute sediment phase toxicity tests with invertebrates
• "Ready" aerobic degradability in fresh water and seawater
• Bioaccumulation potential by HPLC

Since 21 May, 1999 International Ecoenergy Academy and Academy of Ecological Sciences of Georgia adopted an agreement on co-operation and joint activity in ecology, nature protection and rational use of natural resources of the Caucasus. According to agreement the scientists and specialists being engaged in the areas of ecology, nature protection and rational use of natural resources agreed to perform the following:

• establish constant exchange of ecological information
• give special priority to performing the development and implementation of the system of compulsory and continual ecological education at all levels
• implement intergovernmental public ecological expertise of major projects
• introduce constant and continuous ecological provisions and surveillance for all the projects from the design stage through construction and operation, especially for the TRACECA-relevant projects, oil and gas pipelines and large-scale power facilities
• establish an annual Ecological Bulletin of the Caucasus
• establish an Operative News Letter on Ecology of the Caucasus to set up an appropriate climate of opinion and to highlight priorities and urgent ecological problems through the Internet
• implement annual Caucasian scientific workshops through audio and video studies in the Internet
• supply information for the journal "Energy, Ecology, Economy" on energy saving and alternative energy development for the Caucasus as a power deficient region
• hold regular sessions of the Caucasian Environmental Congress -the most representative forum of scientists and practical ecologists of the Caucasus-once in three years.

The agreement is open to any Ecological Institutions of the Caucasus to unit their efforts in order to ensure environmental stability of the region, provide for its steady development, foster the evolution of ecological sciences and practical nature-protection projects, coordinate and centralise the participation of public ecological organisations of the Caucasus in the International Environmental Projects and in the activity of International Ecological Institutions.

International Ecoenergy Academy in co-operation with University of Trento (Italy) carried out a scientific work on feasibility study of wind-electric conversion systems for offshore oil platforms in Azerbaijan. Platforms for crude oil extraction are widely employed in the Caspian Sea, at tens and hundreds kilometers offshore. For the human living (lighting, heating, cooking, etc.) they are to be provided with autonomous electric delivery systems and usually diesel-generator sets are used for this. However the diesel generation is expensive because of the fuel consumption. The more suitable solution to produce really autonomous electric energy on oil platforms is to convert locally the wind energy by means of a wind generator set up on the platform itself, as the winds have high intensity and good regularity on open sea. Although the capital cost of a Wind-Electric Conversion System (WECS) is higher than that of a Diesel-Electric Conversion System (DECS), owing to fuel saving in few years the WECS generation becomes cheaper than the DECS. On the basis of these considerations an evaluation of the feasibility of a pilot set of WECS for oil-platforms on the Caspian sea has been carried out. The possibility of answering the power needs on an oil platform offshore on the Caspian sea with WECS both for saving and generation autonomy was investigated. Three pilot plants are proposed and analysed.

In order to help the personnel to continue their education towards M.Sc. and Ph.D. programs the International Ecoenergy Academy established postgraduate joint programs with the Ministry of Energy of Islamic Republic of Iran (particularly with the Institute of Hydroenergy Industry and Power and Water Institute of Technology) and the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Yemen. The idea of holding these programs as "joint program" is to guarantee that : 1) the programs are offered qualitatively according to the standards of the international universities with a very high reputation and 2) the Ph.D. theses and research works are carried out according to the requirements of the institutes and scientific centres of Islamic Republic of Iran and the Republic of Yemen.

Recently IEA and ERT Ltd. (UK) have prepared a proposal and submitted to NATO Science Programme(SfP) to finance the project "Ecotoxicological regulation of discharges to the Caspian sea".

The aim of the project is develop a robust Environmental Risk Assessment process for regulating discharges to the Caspian sea. In common with many (over 300) other risk assessment tools, the proposed system will aim to make effective use of ecotoxicological data. In contrast with most other tools, the proposed system will incorporate a knowledge-base approach designed to make effective use of the developing ecological understanding of the Caspian. Emphasis will be placed on developing an approach which is pan-Caspian in nature, and which acknowledges regional trans-boundary issues. This is considered of key importance in the Caspian, which already suffers from chronic but poorly-quantified pollution.

Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, and Russia are project partners.