Discover the fundamentals and tools needed to model, design, and build efficient, clean low-carbon energy systems with this unique textbook.

This handbook surveys the range of methods and fuel types used in generating energy for industry, transportation, and heating and cooling of buildings. Solar, wind, biomass, nuclear, geothermal, ocean and fossil fuels are discussed and compared, and the thermodynamics of energy conversion is explained. Appendices are provided with fully updated data. Thoroughly revised, this second edition surveys the latest advances in energy conversion from a wide variety of currently available energy sources. It describes energy sources such as fossil fuels, biomass (including refuse-derived biomass fuels), nuclear, solar radiation, wind, geothermal, and ocean, then provides the terminology and units used for each energy resource and their equivalence. It includes an overview of the steam power cycles, gas turbines, internal combustion engines, hydraulic turbines, Stirling engines, advanced fossil fuel power systems, and combined-cycle power plants. It outlines the development, current use, and future of nuclear power.

Designed to support interactive teaching and computer assisted self-learning, this second edition of Electrical Energy Conversion and Transport is thoroughly updated to address the recent environmental effects of electric power generation and transmission, which have become more important together with the deregulation of the industry. New content explores different power generation methods, including renewable energy generation (solar, wind, fuel cell) and includes new sections that discuss the upcoming Smart Grid and the distributed power generation using renewable energy generation, making the text essential reading material for students and practicing engineers.

This volume will prove of vital interest to those studying the use of renewable resources. Scientists, engineers, and inventors will find it a valuable review of ocean wave mechanics as well as an introduction to wave energy conversion. It presents physical and mathematical descriptions of the nine generic wave energy conversion techniques, along with their uses and performance characteristics. Author Michael E. McCormick is the Corbin A. McNeill Professor of Naval Engineering at the U.S. Naval Academy. In addition to his timely and significant coverage of possible environmental effects associated with wave energy conversion, he provides a separate treatment of several electro-mechanical energy conversion techniques. Many worked examples throughout the book will be particularly useful to readers with a limited mathematical background. Those interested in research and development will benefit from the extensive bibliography.

Solar energy conversion requires a different mind-set from traditional energy engineering in order to assess distribution, scales of use, systems design, predictive economic models for fluctuating solar resources, and planning to address transient cycles and social adoption. Solar Energy Conversion Systems examines solar energy conversion as an integrative design process, applying systems thinking methods to a solid knowledge base for creators of solar energy systems. This approach permits different levels of access for the emerging broad audience of scientists, engineers, architects, planners, and economists. Traditional texts in solar energy engineering have often emerged from mechanical or chemical engineering fields. Instead, Solar Energy Conversion Systems approaches solar energy conversion from the perspectives of integrative design, environmental technology, sustainability science, and materials science in the wake of amazing new thin films, polymers, and glasses developed by the optoelectronics and semiconductor industries. This is a new solar text for the new generation of green job designers and developers. It's highlighted with vignettes that break down solar conversion into useful stories and provides common points of reference, as well as techniques, for effective estimation of evolving technologies. - Contextualizes solar conversion for systems design and implementation in practical applications - Provides a complete understanding of solar power, from underlying science to essential economic outcomes - Analytical approach emphasizes systems simulations from measured irradiance and weather data rather than estimations from "rules of thumb" - Emphasizes integrative design and solar utility, where trans-disciplinary teams can develop sustainable solar solutions that increase client well-being and ecosystems services for a given locale

Direct Energy Conversion discusses both the physics behind energy conversion processes and a wide variety of energy conversion devices. A direct energy conversion process converts one form of energy to another through a single process. The first half of this book surveys multiple devices that convert to or from electricity including piezoelectric devices, antennas, solar cells, light emitting diodes, lasers, thermoelectric devices, and batteries. In these chapters, physical effects are discussed, terminology used by engineers in the discipline is introduced, and insights into material selection is studied. The second part of this book puts concepts of energy conversion in a more abstract framework. These chapters introduce the idea of calculus of variations and illuminate relationships between energy conversion processes.This peer-reviewed book is used for a junior level electrical engineering class at Trine University. However, it is intended not just for electrical engineers. Direct energy conversion is a fascinating topic because it does not fit neatly into a single discipline. This book also should be of interest to physicists, chemists, mechanical engineers, and other researchers interested in an introduction to the energy conversion devices studied by scientists and engineers in other disciplines.

Scientists and engineers are nowadays faced with the problem of optimizing complex systems subject to constraints from, ecology, economics, and thermodynamics. It is chiefly to the last of these that this volume is addressed. Intended for physicists, chemists, and engineers, the book uses examples from solar, thermal, mechanical, chemical, and environmental engineering to focus on the use of thermodynamic criteria for optimizing energy conversion and transmission. The early chapters centre on solar energy conversion, the second section discusses the transfer and conversion of chemical energy, while the concluding chapters deal with geometric methods in thermodynamics.

Emerging Materials for Energy Conversion and Storage presents the state-of-art of emerging materials for energy conversion technologies (solar cells and fuel cells) and energy storage technologies (batteries, supercapacitors and hydrogen storage). The book is organized into five primary sections, each with three chapters authored by worldwide experts in the fields of materials science, physics, chemistry and engineering. It covers the fundamentals, functionalities, challenges and prospects of different classes of emerging materials, such as wide bandgap semiconductors, oxides, carbon-based nanostructures, advanced ceramics, chalcogenide nanostructures, and flexible organic electronics nanomaterials. The book is an important reference for students and researchers (from academics, but also industry) interested in understanding the properties of emerging materials. - Explores the fundamentals, challenges and prospects for the application of emerging materials in the development of energy conversion and storage devices - Presents a discussion of solar cell and photovoltaic, fuel cell, battery electrode, supercapacitor and hydrogen storage applications - Includes notable examples of energy devices based on emerging materials to illustrate recent advances in this field

Increasing global consumerism and population has led to an increase in the levels of waste produced. Waste to energy (WTE) conversion technologies can be employed to convert residual wastes into clean energy, rather than sending these wastes directly to landfill. Waste to energy conversion technology explores the systems, technology and impacts of waste to energy conversion.Part one provides an introduction to WTE conversion and reviews the waste hierarchy and WTE systems options along with the corresponding environmental, regulatory and techno-economic issues facing this technology. Part two goes on to explore further specific aspects of WTE systems, engineering and technology and includes chapters on municipal solid waste (MSW) combustion plants and WTE systems for district heating. Finally, part three highlights pollution control systems for waste to energy technologies.Waste to energy conversion technology is a standard reference book for plant managers, building engineers and consultants requiring an understanding of WTE technologies, and researchers, scientists and academics interested in the field. - Reviews the waste hierarchy and waste to energy systems options along with the environmental and social impact of WTE conversion plants - Explores the engineering and technology behind WTE systems including considerations of municipal solid waste (MSW) its treatment, combustion and gasification - Considers pollution control systems for WTE technologies including the transformation of wast combustion facilities from major polluters to pollution sinks

Discover a straightforward and holistic look at energy conversion and conservation processes using the exergy concept with this thorough text. Explains the fundamental energy conversion processes in numerous diverse systems, ranging from jet engines and nuclear reactors to human bodies. Provides examples for applications to practical energy conversion processes and systems that use our naturally occurring energy resources, such as fossil fuels, solar energy, wind, geothermal, and nuclear fuels. With more than one-hundred diverse cases and solved examples, readers will be able to perform optimizations for a cleaner environment, a sustainable energy future, and affordable energy generation. An essential tool for practicing scientists and engineers who work or do research in the area of energy and exergy, as well as graduate students and faculty in chemical engineering, mechanical engineering and physics.