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 ...
Although technology change (usually involving an improvement in energy efficiency) is not inherently a geographic process, it does not occur uniformly over geographic space. Consequently, mathematical modeling and behavioral and innovation diffusion studies by geographers have improved our understanding of the pervasive phenomenon of technology energy efficiency change in energy markets. Similarly, creative government policies in Germany since 1990 have led to a faster rate of adoption of renewable energy sources, compared to the United States. (more…)
The development of the ‘‘new’’ wind and solar technologies is of great importance for the future contribution of RESs to energy sup ...
Renewable energy sources cannot run out and causes so little damage to the environment that its use does not need to be restric ...
In Europe, modern renewable energy sources technologies were explored thoroughly for the first time after the oil embargo/ price cr ...
Government expenditures on energy R&D, energy conservation have risen steadily over the past decade, but only two countries, Japan ...
"Spain has great potential but lack geothermal legislation and investment." Besides being clean, renewable and friendly, easily man ...
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 ...
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 ...
Addressing global warming, however, is a highly complex and daunting endeavor. Many climate experts have urged the world to stabilize greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere around 450 to 550 parts per million (ppm)—that is, no more than 450 to 550 units of greenhouse gases for every million units of air in the earth’s atmosphere. This approach, experts say, could keep average global temperatures at no more than 3.6° Fahrenheit (2° Celsius) above preindustrial levels, which could avoid some of the worst, irreversible consequences of climate change. (more…)
Although some scientists and critics still dispute that human caused greenhouse gases are causing climate change, the majority of s ...
Climate change caused by the enhanced greenhouse effect is one of the most significant global environmental issues. Increased emiss ...
Options for dealing with the threats of climate change include both adaptation to inevitable changes and mitigation, or lessening, ...
Scientists study Earth’s climate not just from observation but also from a theoretical perspective. Modern-day climate models succe ...
Earth’s climate is a complex system of interacting natural components. These components include the atmosphere, the ocean, and the ...
The global dependence on fossil fuels developed during the Industrial Revolution, two centuries of economic and social development that transformed the way modern humans work and live. Most historians agree that the Industrial Revolution began in the early 1700s in Great Britain when machinery began to replace manual labor and animal power, and fossil fuels replaced wind, water, and wood as main energy sources. Before this period in history, humans manufactured goods by hand or using very simple machines, and most people worked at their homes, which were typically located in rural areas. (more…)
Fossil fuels, had a broader impact in current society, still oil is the one that have far reaching effect. Oil, in all its forms is ...
The leading automotive brands are being focused to produce electric vehicles because they believe they represent a harmony to the e ...
From prehistory until the Industrial Revolution, most energy sources used by humans were localized (i.e., available within 5–10 mil ...
Tanker transportation and oil transport functions as an important link to facilitate the flow of oil and products from their li ...
Gasoline is used mainly by cars, motorcycles, and light trucks; diesel is used mainly by heavier trucks, buses, and trains. Togethe ...
There are various and somewhat complementary reasons to foster the growth of renewable energy sources in Europe. A major incentive for renewable energy sources policies in the past two decades has been to reduce the environmental impact of energy use both locally (e.g., pollutant emission reduction) and globally (e.g., greenhouse gas and carbon emissions reduction). In some countries, concerns about the safety of nuclear power generation have motivated the search for renewable energy sources. Another motivation for replacing foreign fossil and nuclear fuels with domestic renewable energy sources relates to security issues and Europe’s growing dependency on foreign energy sources. (more…)
In Europe, modern renewable energy sources technologies were explored thoroughly for the first time after the oil embargo/ price cr ...
Renewable energy sources cannot run out and causes so little damage to the environment that its use does not need to be restric ...
The development of the ‘‘new’’ wind and solar technologies is of great importance for the future contribution of RESs to energy sup ...
World energy use has increased steadily over the past several decades. Much of the growth in world energy consumption has been ...
Over the last decade, the number of countries researching the potential of biomass and bioenergy for energy services rose rapid ...
Fuel cell vehicles are being developed because they promise to meet the requirements expected of automobiles in a market increasingly constrained by environmental and resource limitations. Air pollution and oil dependence have been persistent challenges for vehicles powered by petroleum fuels (gasoline and diesel). Global warming presents a new challenge in the need to limit carbon dioxide (CO) emissions from fossil fuel combustion. (more…)
There are different types of vehicle propulsion systems and the transportation fuels that have been studied for their potential ...
The internal combustion engine has dominated the car and light-truck market for over 100 years. Although remarkable improvement ...
The commercialization prospects for fuel cell vehicles depend not only on their performance and cost, but also on how well th ...
A fuel cell is an electrochemical device that directly converts a fuel to electricity by means of reactions on the surfaces of ...
The leading automotive brands are being focused to produce electric vehicles because they believe they represent a harmony to the e ...
At present, in the United States and worldwide, motor vehicles are fueled almost exclusively by petroleum based gasoline (or reformulated gasoline) and diesel fuels. Since the first oil price shock in 1973, efforts have been made to seek alternative fuels to displace gasoline and diesel fuels and achieve energy and environmental benefits. Some of the alternative fuels that have been researched and used are liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), compressed natural gas (CNG), liquefied natural gas (LNG), methanol (MeOH), dimethyl ether (DME), Fischer– Tropsch diesel (FTD), hydrogen (H 2 ), ethanol (EtOH), biodiesel, and electricity. Production processes associated with gasoline, diesel, and each of these alternative fuels differ. (more…)
There are different types of vehicle propulsion systems and the transportation fuels that have been studied for their potential ...
Gasoline is used mainly by cars, motorcycles, and light trucks; diesel is used mainly by heavier trucks, buses, and trains. Togethe ...
The energy efficiencies of various fuel production pathways from well to pump. The efficiencies shown are defined as the energy ...
The United States depends heavily on imported oil to fuel its transportation infrastructure. The use of alternative fuel derive ...
Most alternative fuel vehicles on the road today were originally designed for gasoline, but converted for use with an alternative f ...
The spark-ignition and compression-ignition engine and internal combustion engines technologies that are currently employed in motor vehicles were developed more than 100 years ago. These conventional vehicle technologies are fueled by petroleum-derived gasoline and diesel fuels (the socalled conventional fuels). Over the past 100 years, the conventional technologies have been dramatically improved, reducing cost and increasing performance. (more…)
ISO document 14040 identifies four areas for using life cycle analysis (LCA) results: (1) identifying opportunities to improve ...
The fuel cycle for a given transportation fuel includes the following processes: energy feedstock (or primary energy) product ...
There are different types of vehicle propulsion systems and the transportation fuels that have been studied for their potential ...
Because different studies have different system boundaries and parametric assumptions, the studies described in Section 7 resulted ...
For processes that produce multiple products, energy and emission burdens have to be allocated to individual products. ISO 14040 ad ...