Transportation is another sector that has increased its relative share of primary energy use. This sector has serious concerns as it is a significant source of CO2 emissions and other airborne pollutants, and it is almost totally based on oil as its energy source. An important aspect of future changes in transportation depends on what happens to the available oil resources, production and prices. At present, 95% of all energy for transportation comes from oil. (more…)

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…)

Following the recent completion of three nuclear power plants, there is now some 9.6 GW of nuclear capacity in the United Kingdom. The nuclear share of electrical output, which has stood at around 13% for many years, should rise to around 20% when this capacity is in full operation. A further two reactors are currently under construction which will increase the British nuclear capacity to more than 12 GW by the late 1980s, which could bring the nuclear share of electrical output to around 25%. (more…)

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…)

Federal Excise Taxes placed on specific energy sources tend to reduce energy demand for these energy sources in both the short and the long run. The federal government imposes excise taxes on almost all petroleum products (including petroleum additives) and coal (see Table 1). The federal government also imposes federal excise taxes on many transportation uses of methanol, ethanol, natural gas, and propane and imposes a fee on electricity produced from nuclear power plants and nuclear power electricity. (more…)

In this new century, there is considerable pressure on the top six automakers to reduce their environmental and ecological footprint calculation. The automaker that wins the race to build and sell the superior car will shape consumer preferences, thereby boosting sales and profits. The winning firm will fashion a corporate strategy that drives automobile emissions to near zero while simultaneously providing high levels of performance, safety, and comfort. (more…)

Electric utility deregulation offers the great promise of market forces leading to lower electric rates, lower air pollution environment, greater energy (and economic) efficiency, and perhaps greater use of renewable energy sources. Ideally, deregulation involves the restructuring of a previously monopolized or nationalized electric utility into separate generation, transmission, distribution, and marketing companies, and allowing wholesale and retail choice of generation company or power marketer. Deregulation has occurred to varying degrees since 1989 in the United Kingdom, Norway, Australia, New Zealand, Chile, Argentina, and about 20 states in the United States. There have been promising results in a few countries and in some U.S. states in some respects, especially lower rates and lower air pollution problems. In most cases, competitive markets have yet to be realized and lower rates can be attributed to other causes, such as previously planned amortization or retirement of expensive power plants, unexpected surplus in natural gas, rate caps, etc. In addition, deregulation has had only a slight beneficial effect on the use of renewable electricity sources. The promise of electric utility deregulation is thus unfulfilled and deserves further study.

Geopolitical considerations have played a major role in many renewable energy policy decisions, e.g., in domestic debates over gasoline taxes, pipeline construction, radioactive waste disposal, and acid rain control legislation in the United States, and in petroleumrelated violence in Nigeria. The most prominent role for geopolitics in energy policy has probably involved international discussions on controlling greenhouse gas emissions, and in oil markets. In the cases of the Kyoto Protocol of 1997 and the 1992 Framework Convention on Climate Change, nations carefully considered their national economic interests, domestic politics, and international trade during the negotiations. European countries, with the lowest rates of population and economic growth along with strong domestic environmental lobbies, have pursued a greater rate of greenhouse gas reduction.

The United States, in contrast, has been stubbornly cautious and backed out of the treaty in 2001 (arguing it is not in its economic best interests), and the oil-rich nations of the Middle East have been least supportive of any emissions controls. In the case of oil markets, with the United States now dependent on imports for over half its supply, energy policy and trade strategy have played major roles in the pursuit of new oil discoveries in Alaska and in warfare in Kuwait, Iraq, and perhaps Afghanistan.

The product gas can be burned in boilers to generate heat and raise steam, in internal combustion engines to generate electricity and heat at small to medium scale (from a few kilowatts to a few megawatts), and in gas turbines to generate electricity (Brayton cycle) and heat at small to large scale. In large-scale systems using gas turbines, the exhaust gas from the gas turbine can be used to raise steam in a heat recovery steam generator to generate additional electricity using a steam turbine (Rankine cycle), resulting in combined cycle operation. (more…)

Sir Arthur Eddington’s general address on subatomic energy at the 1930 World Power Conference in Berlin stirred the imagination of every scientist and engineer present. The challenge was clear: find a practical means of accessing, controlling, and using the enormous energy locked in the atom as predicted by Einstein’s remarkable mass–energy relation, E=mc2. On December 2, 1942, Enrico Fermi transformed Eddington’s visionary challenge into reality by producing the world’s first controlled, self-sustaining nuclear reactor, Chicago Pile 1. Six decades later, nuclear energy now produces 16% of the world’s electrical power. (more…)

Transport applications tend to demand rapid start-up and instant dynamic response from fuel cell systems, so a high-temperature fuel cell is unlikely to be competitive as the main engine in applications such as cars and buses. The prime candidate for these vehicle propulsion systems is the Polymer Electrolyte Fuel Cells, which exhibits both of the above characteristics while also having very high power density. This is important as it must also occupy a similar amount of space to an internal combustion engine. Of recent interest has been the development of auxiliary power units for vehicles, in which the fuel cell meets the onboard electric load of the vehicle. Both Polymer Electrolyte Fuel Cells and ITSOFCs are under development for this application. (more…)