Fueling Our Future: An Introduction to Sustainable Energy

Front Cover
Cambridge University Press, 2007 M04 19
One of the most important issues facing humanity today is the prospect of global climate change, brought about primarily by our prolific energy use and heavy dependence on fossil fuels. Fueling Our Future: An Introduction to Sustainable Energy provides a concise overview of current energy demand and supply patterns. It presents a balanced view of how our reliance on fossil fuels can be changed over time so that we have a much more sustainable energy system in the near future. Written in a non-technical and accessible style, the book will appeal to a wide range of readers without scientific backgrounds.

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Contents

Section 1
10
Section 2
18
Section 3
39
Section 4
46
Section 5
65
Section 6
81
Section 7
87
Section 8
92
Section 9
98
Section 10
107
Section 11
115
Section 12
141
Section 13
165

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Page 34 - the balance of evidence suggests a discernible human influence on global climate' [5], and was sufficiently confident by the time of the Third Assessment Report to conclude that 'there is new and stronger evidence that most of the warming observed over the last 50 years is attributable to human activities...
Page 113 - Pimentel. D. and T. Patzek. 2005. Ethanol production using corn, switchgrass, and wood: Biodiesel production using soybean and sunflower.
Page 30 - ... minimize, or at least reduce, the rapid increase in global CO2 concentration levels being predicted for the twenty-first century. At the present time these discussions are primarily focused on obtaining international agreement for limiting the production of greenhouse gases under the auspices of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), which was formally adopted in 1992 in New York. Under this convention the most heavily industrialized countries, including the OECD...
Page 113 - Huttrer, GW (2001). The status of world geothermal power generation 1995-2000. Geothermics, 30, 1-27.
Page 5 - However, in recent years few major new production fields have been found, and the exploration effort and cost required to maintain these ratios has been significantly increased. Ultimately, of course, supplies of oil and natural gas will be depleted to such an extent, or the cost of production will become so high, that alternative energy sources will need to be developed. In some regions of the world new production from non-traditional petroleum supplies, such as heavy oil deposits and oil-sands,...
Page 3 - greenhouse gases," is increasing quite rapidly, and that this is likely due to mankind's activities on earth, or "anthropogenic" causes. The utilization of any fossil fuel results in the production of large quantities of CO2, and most scientific evidence points to this as the main cause of increasing concentration levels in the atmosphere, and of small, but important increases in global average temperatures.
Page 33 - It can be seen that there has been a steady increase in the sensitivity to glare as the observer gains experience of the control experiment.
Page 151 - Figure 9.2 that the first step in the energy conversion chain is the generation of electricity as an initial energy carrier. This carrier is then converted into hydrogen as a secondary carrier, and this is stored on-board the vehicle. The final step in the chain is then the conversion of the stored hydrogen back into electricity by the fuel cell, and this is then used to power the electric propulsion motor.

About the author (2007)

Robert Evans is the Methanex Professor of Clean Energy Systems and founding Director of the Clean Energy Research Centre in the Faculty of Applied Science at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver. He was previously Head of the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Associate Dean of Applied Science at UBC. He is a fellow of the Canadian Academy of Engineering, the UK Institution of Mechanical Engineers, and the US Society of Automotive Engineers. Prior to spending the last 25 years in academia he worked in the UK Central Electricity Research Laboratory, for the British Columbia Energy Commission, and the British Columbia Ministry of Energy, Mines and Petroleum Resources. He is the author or co-author of over 130 publications, and holds four US patents.

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