Global energy consumption in the last half century has increased very rapidly and is expected to continue to grow over the next 50 years. However, we expect to see significant differences between the last 50 years and the next. The past increase was stimulated by relatively “cheap” fossil fuels and increased rates of industrialization in North America, Europe, and Japan; yet while energy consumption in these countries continues to increase, additional factors are making the picture for the next 50 years more complex. These additional complicating factors include the very rapid increase fuel economy in energy use in China and India (countries representing about a third of the world’s population); the expected depletion of oil resources in the not-too-distant future; and the effect of human activities on global climate change. (more…)
The relationship of gross national product per capita to energy consumption per capita for most countries of the world correlat ...
The long-term prospects for the U.K. economy are inevitably uncertain, and the most recent Department of Energy long-term proje ...
Transportation is another sector that has increased its relative share of primary energy use. This sector has serious concerns ...
The development of the ‘‘new’’ wind and solar technologies is of great importance for the future contribution of RESs to energy sup ...
To determine the effects of past climate trends on global energy consumption, the econometric equations providing the degree day el ...
Indoor air quality (IAQ) research deals with the presence, levels, health effects, and control of physical, chemical, and biological factors in indoor environments, including homes, workplaces, and vehicles. IAQ research in industrialized countries has examined hundreds of specific factors (e.g., temperature, various chemicals, and mold), sources of pollution environment (e.g., environmental tobacco smoke, occupational factors, consumer cleaning products, and moisture), and control technologies (e.g., ventilation). (more…)
Important research over the past few decades has illustrated that indoor air pollution and indoor smoke from solid fuel poses i ...
In terms of aggregate health effects, household solid fuel use is currently the most important source of indoor air pollution i ...
Exposure to air pollutants and air pollution problem are very high in indoor environments in developing countries. Smith has es ...
Reducing exposure to indoor air pollution from household energy use can be achieved through interventions in of the following a ...
Exposure to indoor air pollution from the combustion of solid fuels has been implicated, with varying degrees of evidence, as a ...
Most discussions of energy use in paper production and papermaking are confusing because of a failure to define exactly what is meant by energy. It is important to keep track of the form in which energy is used. The major inputs to a paper mill are wood, purchased energy in the form of electricity and fossil fuels, and water. Some components of the wood are used as a raw material and some as by-product fuel. What the industry generally reports is the process energy use at the mill, which is the sum of the purchased energy and the process by-product energy (part of the energy originally in the wood) that is used. (more…)
More than 48% of the raw material fiber used for paper production (chemical pulp or mechanical pulp) in the United States in 2002 w ...
Agricultural and forestry residues provide the largest proportion of biomass used for the production of biomas bioenergy. Some esti ...
To date, most discussion and research relating to the various of biomass role in mitigating CO2 emissions has been focused around i ...
Another large source of renewable carbon supplies is waste biomass. It consists of a wide range of materials and includes munic ...
In Europe, modern renewable energy sources technologies were explored thoroughly for the first time after the oil embargo/ price cr ...
From prehistory until the Industrial Revolution, most energy sources used by humans were localized (i.e., available within 5–10 miles of end users). Energy sources included draft animals, human slaves, and renewable sources such as biomass (wood and wastes), water mills, and wind power. Following the onset of the Industrial Revolution, with advancements in transportation technology and increased rates of deforestation in many regions, societies increasingly relied on long-distance shipments of coal, wood, and eventually oil, natural gas, and electric power. (more…)
Transportation is another sector that has increased its relative share of primary energy use. This sector has serious concerns ...
The global dependence on fossil fuels developed during the Industrial Revolution, two centuries of economic and social development ...
Natural gas and oil are common source energy used to give electricity. How efficient is coal if we compare to these other source of ...
Statistics on national production levels and indicators of environmental pressure have been collected during the past few decad ...
The entire concept of energy independence revolves around using the resources within a country. Simply put, it's "Stay within ...
Because transportation is such a large contributor to global warming, both globally and in the United States, climate and energy experts say finding clean alternatives to gasoline is also key to replacing fossil fuels and slowing global warming. Just as there is debate and competing research about which type of alternative transportation fuel should be developed to produce electricity, however, there is also competition among possible new transportation fuels. So far, in the United States, significant funding has been put into two transportation technologies—ethanol and hydrogen fuel cells. Many energy commentators say cars powered by electric batteries are the technology closest to mass production capability, however. (more…)
Gasoline is used mainly by cars, motorcycles, and light trucks; diesel is used mainly by heavier trucks, buses, and trains. Togethe ...
The increase in the prices of major fuels, like gasoline and diesel fuel products is a major global problems recently. Those pr ...
The French Union of Petroleum Industries (UFIP) announced that from Wednesday 1 April, the French vehicles may use a new fuel cal ...
In 1998, several initiatives were implemented in Brazil, aiming to introduce biodiesel into the Brazilian energy matrix. The in ...
There are different types of vehicle propulsion systems and the transportation fuels that have been studied for their potential ...
Reductions in carbon intensity, C/E, the carbon emitted per unit of energy generated, reflect the degree to which societies decarbonize their energy sources. The long-term trend has been a shift from coal to oil to natural gas––hydrocarbons with decreasing C/H ratios emitting progressively less CO2 per joule. However, the increasing use of clean low-carbon fuels is not sustainable without somehow disposing of excess carbon because it opposes the trend in the abundance of fossil fuels, with coal resources being the most abundant followed by oil and gas. (more…)
The global cycling of carbon involves both biological and physical processes. Only the biological components are discussed here. Pl ...
The flux of carbon among terrestrial, aquatic, and atmospheric pools is at least partially controlled by photosynthetic process ...
It is of interest to examine potential sources of greenhouse gases sources or atmospheric CO2 by analysis of the global distrib ...
Climate change caused by the enhanced greenhouse effect is one of the most significant global environmental issues. Increased emiss ...
The global carbon cycle involves both biological and physical processes. Only the biological components are discussed here. Pla ...
Air-blown circulating fluidized bed gasifiers are of interest because they produce a good quality, low calorific value (LCV) gas (4–6 MJ/Nm 3 ) and possess a very high carbon conversion efficiency while allowing high capacity, good tolerance to variations in fuel quality, and reliable operation. The high and homogeneously distributed temperatures and the use of particular bed materials, such as dolomite, favor tar cracking. Successful tar cracking can also be achieved using secondary circulating fluidized bed reactors. Also, successful tests on catalytic tar cracking have been performed, for example, by introducing nickel compounds into the gasifier. Sulfur control is made easier because of the significant reduction that can be achieved by adding limestone or dolomite to the gasifier bed. (more…)
The moisture content of the feedstock affects the gas composition and the energy balance of the process since gasification is an en ...
Thermo chemical processing of biomass yields gaseous, liquid, and solid products and offers a means of producing useful gaseous ...
A combination of legislation and technology has helped clean up many of the world’s coal-burning plants. Both developed and develop ...
Biomass Storage Biomass storage is required to ensure the continuous operation of the facility. To limit the space required for ...
Gasification is a thermo chemical process that has been exploited for more than a century for converting solid feedstocks to ga ...
In Europe, modern renewable energy sources technologies were explored thoroughly for the first time after the oil embargo/ price crisis of 1973. Notably, market introduction of renewable energy technology started in about 1985, but the renewable energy sources industry has become vital only during the past decade. Accordingly, relevant statistical renewable energy sources data have been systematically compiled only over the past decade, although reliable and consistent statistical renewable energy sources data, collected since 1989, exist for all 15 countries of the European Union and for Western Europe (defined here as the EU-15 plus Switzerland, Norway, and Iceland). (more…)
There are various and somewhat complementary reasons to foster the growth of renewable energy sources in Europe. A major incent ...
The development of the ‘‘new’’ wind and solar technologies is of great importance for the future contribution of RESs to energy sup ...
Although technology change (usually involving an improvement in energy efficiency) is not inherently a geographic process, it does ...
The energy that people use every day comes from many different sources. The resources are divided into two main groups: renewa ...
Renewable energy sources cannot run out and causes so little damage to the environment that its use does not need to be restric ...
Gasification is a thermo chemical process that has been exploited for more than a century for converting solid feedstocks to gaseous energy carriers. The first gasifier patent was issued in England at the end of the 18th century and producer gas from coal gasification was mainly used as lighting fuel throughout the 19th century. At the turn of the 20th century, the main use of producer gas, obtained essentially from coal, switched to electricity generation and automotive applications via internal combustion engines. The use of producer gas was gradually supplanted by the use of higher energy density liquid fuels and as a result confined to areas with expensive or unreliable supplies of petroleum fuels. (more…)
The product gas can be burned in boilers to generate heat and raise steam, in internal combustion engines to generate electricity a ...
Thermo chemical processing of biomass yields gaseous, liquid, and solid products and offers a means of producing useful gaseous ...
Biomass Storage Biomass storage is required to ensure the continuous operation of the facility. To limit the space required for ...
Estimation of the future technical potential of biomass as an energy source is dependent on assumptions with respect to land av ...
The moisture content of the feedstock affects the gas composition and the energy balance of the process since gasification is an en ...
The energy efficiencies of various fuel production pathways from well to pump. The efficiencies shown are defined as the energy in a given fuel (available at pumps in vehicle refueling stations) divided by total energy inputs during all Well-to-Pump activities, including the energy content of the fuel. One way to interpret the Well-to-Pump efficiencies in the figure is as the difference between 100% and the energy efficiencies, which roughly represent energy losses during Well-to-Pump stages for making a given fuel available at the pump. As stated in Section 3, Well-to-Pump activities include biomass feedstock production; feedstock transportation and storage; fuel production; and fuel transportation, storage, and distribution. (more…)
The combination of well-to-pump results and the energy use and emissions associated with vehicle operation (also called the pum ...
It shows Well-to-Wheels Greenhouse Gas emissions of the 23 vehicle/fuel systems. For each system, the bottom bar represents CO2 ...
Because different studies have different system boundaries and parametric assumptions, the studies described in Section 7 resulted ...
There are different types of vehicle propulsion systems and the transportation fuels that have been studied for their potential ...
At present, in the United States and worldwide, motor vehicles are fueled almost exclusively by petroleum based gasoline (or re ...