| Contents Notes |
Preface -- Acknowledgments -- Notation -- Part 1: Living On Spaceship Earth: -- Energy challenge: -- Our spaceship earth -- Unsustainable growth in tan unequal world -- Population growth and carrying capacity -- Economic growth and ecologic degradation -- Inequalities -- Energy and climate crisis -- Dealing with change -- Unavoidable questions -- Concepts and misconcepts: -- Elusive definition of energy -- Taste of basic principles -- Converting primary energy into useful energy -- It takes energy to make energy: the EROI -- Embodied energy -- Energy units and conversions -- Immense energy and power scales -- Some energy key parameters -- Energy pervasiveness versus energy illiteracy -- Key numbers: an abacus for energy literacy -- Energy in history: -- Historia magistra vitae -- Animal power -- Human slaves and energy slaves -- Waterwheels and windwheels -- From wood to coal -- Steam-powered machines -- Road vehicles -- Aircraft -- Conventional engines -- Jet engines -- Electricity -- Early development -- From wayfarers to ICT -- Part 2: Fossil Fuels: -- Oil -- What is oil -- Oil history, exploration, drilling, production -- History -- Exploration -- Drilling -- Production -- Oil transportation -- Pipelines -- Tankers -- Oil refining -- Oil storage -- Unconventional oil -- Petrochemicals -- Oil as a fuel -- World picture -- US and developed countries -- China and India -- American's addiction to oil -- Oil price -- Oil peak and reserves -- Non-renewable resource -- Oil reserves -- Oil peak -- Natural gas: -- Natural Gas: -- What is natural gas and where it comes from -- Gas properties and definitions -- Brief historical notes on gas exploitation -- Gas production, consumption, and reserves -- Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) -- Natural gas processing -- Transport, storage, and distribution -- Transport -- Storage -- Distribution -- Gas uses: energy and feedstock -- Energy use -- Natural gas as a feedstock -- Unconventional gas -- Coal: -- What is coal -- Coal extraction -- Coal transportation and industrial uses -- Coal gasification -- Coal production, consumption, and reserves -- Carbon Capture and Sequestration (CCS) -- Integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) -- Fossil legacy: -- Energy dark sides -- Inequalities and externalities -- Monetizing costs -- Indirect effects -- Alteration of the carbon cycle by fossil fuel combustion -- Carbon reservoirs and fluxes -- CO2 rise and its measurement -- Greenhouse effect -- Anthropogenic climate change -- Path to present understanding -- Melting of ice sheets -- Interference with ocean currents -- Ocean acidification -- Permafrost melting -- Effects on weather and ecosystems -- Air pollution and global warming -- Globalizing smog -- Aerosols and black carbon -- Ozone, ozone depleting substances and N2O -- Complicated picture -- Counterbalancing our climate influence -- Putting a limit to CO2 -- Regulatory efforts to curb greenhouse emissions -- ppm or Teratons? -- Air pollution and human health -- Complex atmospheric mix -- NOx -- Ozone -- Particulate matter -- Carbon Monoxide (CO) -- Sulfur Dioxide (SO2) and acidic precipitations -- Heavy metals -- Land and water degradation -- Oil spills -- Coal Combustion Residues (CCRs) -- So, what? -- Part 3: Nuclear Energy: -- Nuclear energy: -- Principles of nuclear fission and fusion -- Radioactivity, mass and energy -- Structure of matter -- Nuclear fission -- Controlled and uncontrolled chain fission reactions -- Nuclear fusion -- Power from nuclear fission -- Past and present -- Nuclear fuel -- Uranium supply -- Nuclear reactor technologies -- Cost and time issues -- Proliferation -- Safety and security -- Waste management -- Decommissioning and dismantling -- Other limiting factors -- Perspectives -- Nuclear industry renaissance? -- Civilian use of nuclear fusion? -- Difficult problem -- Magnetic confinement approach -- Inertial confinement approach -- Wishful thinking -- Part 4: Renewable Energies: -- Solar energy basics: -- Origin of sunshine -- Solar radiation and attenuation -- Abundant, fairly distributed, vital -- Sun's limits: dilution and intermittency -- Conversion of solar energy: heat, fuels, electricity -- Solar heat and electricity: -- Passive solar harnessing in buildings -- Thermal conversion: unconcentrated solar flux -- Solar thermal panels -- Collectors -- Water management -- Sun exposure -- Current deployment and trends of solar thermal panels -- Earth Energy Systems (EES) -- Solar thermoelectrics -- Thermal conversion: concentrated solar flux -- Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) -- Parabolic trough collectors -- Solar towers -- Dish collectors with stirling engines -- Solar updraft towers (chimneys) -- Cost considerations and carbon footprint of solar thermal electricity -- Solar thermochemical conversion -- Birth and rise of photovoltaics -- Inorganic photovoltaics: key principles -- Silicon solar cells -- Manufacturing of poly- and single-crystalline silicon cells -- Material requirements, life-cycle impacts and cost -- Amorphous thin film silicon cells -- Thin film solar cells -- Organic solar cells -- Concentrated photovoltaics and other innovative concepts -- Photovoltaics: global installation and market trends -- Solar energy: sustainable and affordable -- Solar fuels: -- Introduction -- Natural photosynthesis -- Complex process -- Natural antenna systems -- Natural reaction centers -- Efficiency of photosynthesis -- Biomass and biofuels -- Biomass -- Biofuels today -- Second-generation biofuels -- Biofuel perspectives -- Future options for transportation fuels -- Artificial photosynthesis -- Need for solar fuels -- Choosing the right type of photoreaction -- Choosing the right chemical substrate -- Components of an artificial photosynthetic system -- Coupling artificial antenna and reaction center -- Problem of multi-electron redox processes -- Water splitting by semiconductor photocatalysis -- Dye-sensitized solar cells -- Solar fuel challenge -- Other renewable: -- Hydroelectric energy -- Rise of hydropower -- Potential, current deployment, and use -- Advantages, disadvantages, and environmental impact -- Hydropower future -- Wind energy -- Brief historical notes -- Wind power technology -- Huge potential of wind power -- Current deployment and trends -- Environmental impact -- Cost of wind power -- Ocean energies -- Tidal energy -- Wave energy -- Ocean thermal energy -- Geothermal energy -- Geothermal resource -- Electricity production -- Heat for direct use -- Advantages, disadvantages, and perspectives -- Next frontier: going deeper -- Part 5: Energy Carriers: -- Electricity: -- Basic concepts -- Illumination -- Traditional power generation -- Demand and supply -- Thermal power plants based on fossil fuels -- Coal-fired power plants -- Oil or gas power plants -- Hydroelectric power plants -- Nuclear power plants -- Contribution by other energy sources -- Traditional electricity grid -- Power generation from new renewables -- Intermittency and fluctuation -- Electricity from wind -- Electricity from solar energy conversion -- Energy storage for electricity supply networks -- Role of storage -- Pumped hydro -- Compressed Air Energy Storage (CAES) -- Flywheels -- Superconducting Magnetic Energy Storage (SMES) -- Electrostatic Energy Storage (Capacitors) -- Batteries -- Battery requirements -- Electrolytic hydrogen -- Plugging-in transportation -- Hybrid and full electric vehicles -- Infrastructure -- Smart grid -- Towards an electricity powered world -- Hydrogen: -- Introduction -- Properties and industrial uses -- Hydrogen as an energy carrier: the scale of the task -- Methods for producing hydrogen -- Clean coal technology -- Biomass -- Water electrolysis -- General concepts -- Hydroelectric power -- Wind electric power -- Solar photovoltaic and photoelectrochemical electricity -- Solar thermal electricity -- Photoelectrochemical and photochemical water splitting -- Nuclear energy -- Hydrogen storage -- Difficult problem -- Liquid hydrogen -- Compressed hydrogen -- Metal hydrides -- Other systems -- Hydrogen transportation and distribution -- Centralized distribution -- Decentralized distribution -- End uses of hydrogen fuel -- Fuel cells: general concepts -- Proton Exchange Membrane (PEM) Hydrogen Fuel Cells -- Other types of hydrogen fuel cells -- Reformed methanol fuel cells -- Direct methanol fuel cells -- Hydrogen powered vehicles -- Towards a hydrogen economy? -- Part 6: Scenarios For A Sustainable Future: -- Challenge ahead: -- Reflection on the state of our planet: now we know -- Energy demand and supply -- Energy and the quality of life -- Focusing illusion -- Energy, obesity, iniquity -- Saving the climate -- Phasing out fossil fuels -- Avoiding nuclear energy -- Ecological sustainability -- Natural capital -- Learning to say enough -- Why we need to develop renewable energies -- Conclusion -- Appendix: Did you know that? -- References -- Index. Overview: An easy read, balancing the pros and cons, this book surveys the energy issue from a broad scientific perspective while considering environmental, economic, and social factors. It explains the basic concepts, provides a historical overview of energy resources, assesses our unsustainable energy system based on fossil fuels, and shows that the energy crisis is not only a tough challenge, but also an unprecedented opportunity to become more concerned about the world in which we live and the society we have built up. By outlining the alternatives for today and the future, it gives an extensive overview on nuclear energy, solar thermal and photovoltaics, solar fuels, wind power, ocean energies and other renewables, highlighting the increasing importance of electricity and the long-term perspectives of a hydrogen-based economy. An excellent source of updated and carefully documented information on the entangled aspects of the energy issue, this book is a guide for scientists, students and teachers looking for ways out of the energy and climate crisis, and the problems and disparities generated during the fossil fuel era. |
