Primary Energy Use and Clean Coal Technology

clean coal technology
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…)

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Global Energy Consumption & Energy Demand in Electricity and Transportation

global energy demand
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…)

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UK Energy Demand: The United Kingdom Trends in Energy

uk energy demand
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…)


Dependence on Fossil Fuels: The Fossil Fuel Era

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…)

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Biodiesel in Europe as Alternative Transportation Fuels

Biodiesel in Europe
Two factors have contributed to an aggressive expansion of the European biodiesel industry. Reform of the Common Agricultural Policy to reduce agricultural surpluses was of primary importance. This policy, which provides a substantial subsidy to non-food crop production, stimulated the use of land for non-food purposes. Secondarily, high fuel taxes in European countries normally constitute 50% or more of the retail price of diesel fuel. (more…)

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Fuel Cycle Analysis and Green House Gas Emission

Fuel Cycle Analysis
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…)

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Fuel Cycle Analysis of Vehicles and Transportation Fuels

fuel cycle

The fuel cycle for a given transportation fuel includes the following processes: energy feedstock (or primary energy) production; biomass feedstock transportation and storage; fuel production; fuel transportation, storage, and distribution; and vehicle operations that involve fuel combustion air or other chemical energy conversions. The processes that precede vehicle operations are often referred to as the well-to-pump (WTP) stage, the vehicle operations are referred to as the pump-to-wheels (PTW) stage, and the entire fuel cycle is referred to as the well-to-wheels (WTW) cycle. Various models have been developed that allow researchers to conduct fuel cycle analyses of vehicle/fuel systems. The GREET (greenhouse gases, regulated emissions, and energy transportation) model, developed by Argonne National Laboratory, is in the public domain and, so far, more than 1000 users worldwide have used the model to predict the energy use and emissions associated with alternative fuels vehicles. The GREET model and its documents are posted on the Internet at http:// greet.anl.gov. (more…)

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The Future Of Renewable Fuels And Hybrids

Do we have the resources? Rudolf Diesel developed the diesel engine which ran on biodiesel vegetable oil in the late 1800s. At the time, he speculated that his discovery seemed insignificant, but later could prove to be as important as mankind’s uncovering of future energy uses for petroleum and coal tar. Given the U.S.’ rapid expansion into biofuels, it would appear his vision was correct due to the drawbacks of biofuels. But widespread adoption of biomass-based fuels is not a foregone conclusion. Two questions haunt its progress. First, will it truly reduce U.S. reliance on fossil fuels? And second, is there enough farmland to accommodate widespread production, without jeopardizing food supplies? (more…)

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U.S Government Sponsorship For Vehicle Efficiency Technology R&D

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Although the automotive industry is a vigorous sponsor of research and development in vehicle efficiency technology—worldwide, nearly $20 billion U.S. worth in 1997—governments throughout the world sponsor additional automotive R&D, both separately from and in partnership with the industry. This work focuses primarily on four areas: emissions reduction, safety, fuels, and fuel economy. Within the past few years, government sponsorship of automotive R&D has moved sharply in the direction of attempting to advance the performance and cost-effectiveness of automotive fuel cells vehicles, which address three of the four areas: emissions, fuels, and fuel economy. (more…)

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Allocation Methods and Technology Maturity Levels (ISO 14040)

For processes that produce multiple products, energy and emission burdens have to be allocated to individual products. ISO 14040 advocates reducing the need to allocate by expanding the system boundary. That is, when comparing two systems, the system boundaries for both can be expanded so that all products from both systems are within a newly expanded single system. In transportation FCAs, the system boundary expansion is also called the displacement method. (more…)

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