Exposure to indoor air pollution from the combustion of solid fuels has been implicated, with varying degrees of evidence, as a causal agent of several diseases in developing countries. In a review of the epidemiological evidence for the health effects of indoor smoke from solid fuels, Bruce et al. concluded that, despite some methodological limitations, epidemiological studies provide compelling evidence of causality for acute respiratory infections (ARI) and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). This is reinforced by experimental data, studies of pathogenesis, and indirect evidence from environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) and ambient air pollution studies. (more…)
Important research over the past few decades has illustrated that indoor air pollution and indoor smoke from solid fuel poses i ...
Exposure to air pollutants and air pollution problem are very high in indoor environments in developing countries. Smith has es ...
Smoke from biomass and coal combustion contains a large number of pollutants with known health hazards, including particulate matte ...
Indoor air quality (IAQ) research deals with the presence, levels, health effects, and control of physical, chemical, and biologica ...
In terms of aggregate health effects, household solid fuel use is currently the most important source of indoor air pollution i ...
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…)
Under both former President Bush and new President Obama, the U.S. government has vowed to reduce reliance on imported oil. The ...
Global energy consumption in the last half century has increased very rapidly and is expected to continue to grow over the next ...
From prehistory until the Industrial Revolution, most energy sources used by humans were localized (i.e., available within 5–10 mil ...
Do we have the resources? Rudolf Diesel developed the diesel engine which ran on biodiesel vegetable oil in the late 1800s. At the ...
One study that does address the peak-oil scenario directly is a 2005 report conducted for the National Energy Technology Labora ...
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 ...
The long-term prospects for the U.K. economy are inevitably uncertain, and the most recent Department of Energy long-term projection puts forward three scenarios for the next 30 years with GDP growth rates of roughly 2.5, 1.5 and 0.5% p.a. The highest value corresponds to slightly less than the 1948 - 72 average, the central value is close to the long-run average over the last 80 years, and the lowest figure is similar to the performance during the current recession since 1973. (more…)
Following the recent completion of three nuclear power plants, there is now some 9.6 GW of nuclear capacity in the United Kingd ...
Global energy consumption in the last half century has increased very rapidly and is expected to continue to grow over the next ...
Most major oil and gas firms engage in both upstream (i.e., hydrocarbon exploration and production) and downstream (i.e., hydro ...
Energy is consumed by various segments of the economy, including households, commercial establishments, manufacturing enterpris ...
World energy use has increased steadily over the past several decades. Much of the growth in world energy consumption has been ...
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…)
Geographers researching the development of nuclear power have shifted emphasis from commercialization, cost, risk, public acceptanc ...
The long-term prospects for the U.K. economy are inevitably uncertain, and the most recent Department of Energy long-term proje ...
Nuclear fission and fusion Research and Development continues to account for nearly half of the total spending by IEA countries, al ...
Sir Arthur Eddington’s general address on subatomic energy at the 1930 World Power Conference in Berlin stirred the imagination of ...
For years it was out of desperation that observers have advised and viewed of American energy policy and geopolitical risks regardi ...
Certain materials, generally metal oxides, can sustain the unassisted photo-electrolysis of water into H2 and O2. The energy contained in the photons that are absorbed by these materials can in many cases be efficiently converted into energy stored into the chemical fuels produced by the photo-electrolysis system. However, these materials have optical absorption thresholds (band gaps) that are too large to permit effective absorption of the visible and infrared portions of the solar spectrum, thereby wasting a large fraction of the incident solar energy and yielding overall energy conversion efficiencies of o 1%. Modification of metal oxide materials has been claimed to be much more promising, with a modified TiO 2 photo-anode yielding 8% efficiency in the photo-assisted splitting of water into H2 and O2 . (more…)
Several molecular systems have been constructed that mimic various aspects of photosynthesis. Two of these utilize molecular system ...
The basic processes that occur in such a system are well understood. The semiconductor electrode efficiently absorbs light, produci ...
The issues of hydrogen storage run through the hydrogen production, hydrogen transport, supply and demand for end use of hydrog ...
Hydrogen has many applications when it comes to fuel. It can be used both in internal combustion engines and hydrogen fuel cells. ...
All of today’s hydrogen conversion products, demonstration models, and prototypes possess some deficiencies; they cannot yet pr ...
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 ...
The term hybrid energy system refers to those applications in which multiple energy unit conversion devices are used together to supply an energy requirement. These systems are often used in isolated applications and normally include at least one renewable energy source in the configuration. Hybrid energy systems are used an alternative to more conventional systems, which typically are based on a single fossil fuel source. Hybrid energy systems may also be used as part of distributed generation application in conventional electricity grid. (more…)
There are numerous possible applications for hybrid power systems. The most common examples are (1) remote AC network, (2) dist ...
The characteristics and components of a hybrid system depend greatly on the application. The most important consideration is wh ...
Renewable energy generators are devices that convert energy from its original form in the renewable energy source into electric ...
The primary electric drivetrain components for fuel cell vehicles are the same as those for any electric vehicle: traction motors, ...
Drying is one of the most important post harvest steps. It enhances the storage life of the crop products, minimizes losses during storage, and saves shipping costs. The drying process is the removal of water from the wet surface of the food. In this process, heat is transferred by convection and radiation to the surface of the produce. This heat raises the temperatures heat and evaporates the moisture from the exterior of the agricultural products, diffusing the interior moisture to the surface and replenishing the evaporated surface moisture. (more…)
Solar dryers are special structures that enhance the drying power of the sun and protect the agricultural product from dust, dirt, ...
The moisture content of the feedstock affects the gas composition and the energy balance of the process since gasification is an en ...
Biomass Storage Biomass storage is required to ensure the continuous operation of the facility. To limit the space required for ...
As a result of high and rising costs of fossil fuels and fossil fuels affect global environment concern , and by the reduction ...
Solar distillation is the process in which solar heat is used to purify water from an impure water source by evaporation and conden ...
Although some scientists and critics still dispute that human caused greenhouse gases are causing climate change, the majority of scientists and climate experts assert that global warming is a serious problem that could have devastating consequences unless action is taken to reduce fossil fuel emissions. In 2007, for example, the Nobel Prize–winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a scientific body charged by the United Nations with summarizing the best climate science, concludes that evidence of the warming of our climate is “unequivocal.” (more…)
Still hotly debated by some, human-induced global warming is now accepted in the scientific community. Earth’s average yearly tempe ...
Since the early 1960s, climate change and air quality have become major and often controversial issues in many countries and am ...
Addressing global warming, however, is a highly complex and daunting endeavor. Many climate experts have urged the world to stabili ...
Earth’s climate is a complex system of interacting natural components. These components include the atmosphere, the ocean, and the ...
Options for dealing with the threats of climate change include both adaptation to inevitable changes and mitigation, or lessening, ...