Project Details:

Future Energy: Improved, sustainable and clean options for our planet

Project No.:2007-015-2-100
Start date:2007-10-01
End date:2008-10-31
Division:Physical and Biophysical Chemistry Division
Objective:
The objective is to first consider the reasons for developing alternate forms of energy and to then detail all the possible forms available to us. Each chapter will be written by an engineer or scientist, working in the field. Much of the argument and details of the forms, depend on environmental and chemical issues.
Description:
Apart from the introductory chapter, the book will be divided into 22 chapters with each chapter detailing a form of energy that will be available to us, globally, over the next few decades. The review will focus on all the types of energy available to us, taking into account our major problems - reducing our dependence on fossil fuel, reducing the amount of carbon dioxide we produce and finding a suitable fuel for our transport system. It is unique in the genre of books of similar title, currently on sale, in that each chapter has been written by a scientist or engineer who is an expert in his or her field. Each chapter highlights the details, scope and problems associated with a particular type of energy. Included in the book, are new and emerging forms of energy, such as wave power, tidal energy, recent developments in battery and fuel cell technology, the hydrogen economy, tar sands, wind energy, solar (concentrated), solar (photovoltaic), and geothermal. The old forms of energy are not forgotten and there will be chapters on the latest improvements in coal burning, oil and gas burning, oil from coal and methane technology, bio-fuels, carbon dioxide capture and storage, hydroelectric power, and nuclear fission. Areas of great potential but not yet come of age, such as pebble bed nuclear reactors, methane gas hydrates, energy storage and nuclear fusion , are also dealt with.

Looking at the whole spectrum of options in the book, we should be able to discern which forms of energy best suite us now and in the future.
Progress:

draft contents (Oct 2007)

Foreword by Sir David King, Chief Scientific Advisor to HM Government, Londo, UK

Preface by John O'M Bockris (Texas A&M, Texas USA)

Introduction - Trevor M Letcher and Rubin Battino

FOSSIL FUEL and NUCLEAR ENERGY

1. Future of Oil and Gas Fossil Fuels, possibly by Anthony Goodwin, Schlumberger, USA

2. Future of Clean Coal by Mustafa Balat, University Mahallesi, Turkey

3. Nuclear Power (Fission) by David Kennedy and Stephen Green, Department of Trade and Industry, UK

4. Nuclear pebble bed reactors by Dieter Matzner, Centurion South Africa

5. Oil and Tar Sands, by Farhood Rahnama together with R A Marsh, Lemoine K Philp and Katherine Elliott, Alberta Energy and Utilities Board, Calgary, Canada

6. The Future of Methane and Coal to Petrol and Diesel Technology by Anton C Vosloo, SASOL, South Africa

RENEWABLE ENERGY

7. Wind Energy by Larry Staudt, Dundalk Institute of Technology, Centre for Renewable Energy, Dundalk, Ireland

8. Tidal Energy by Alan Owen, Centre for Research in Energy and the Environment , The Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen, Scotland

9. Wave Energy by Raymond Alcorn, University College Cork, Ireland

10. Bio-mass by Pascale Champagne, Queens University, Kingston, Canada

11. Concentrating Solar Power by Robert Pitz-Paal, Deutsches Zentrum fur Luft-und Raumfahrt, Koln, Germany

12. Hydroelectric Power by Daniel Spreng and Marcus Balmer, ETH Zürich, Switzerland

13. Geothermal Energy by Joel L Renner, Idaho National Laboratory, USA

14. Solar, Photovoltaics by David Infield, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, Scotland

15. The Hydrogen Economy by Thorsteinn I Sigfusson, University of Iceland, Iceland

POTENTIALLY IMPORTANT NEW TYPES OF ENERGY

16. Fuel Cells and Batteries by Justin Salminen, University of California, USA, Daniel Steingard, University of California, USA and Tanja Kallio, TKK, Helsinki University of Technology, Finland

17. Methane Hydrates by Edith Allison, Exploration and Methane Hydrate, US Department of Energy, Washington, USA

18. Nuclear Fusion by Michael Bradley, University of Saskatchewan, Canada

NEW ASPECTS TO FUTURE ENERGY USAGE

19. Carbon Capture by Daniel Tondeur, Laboratoires des Sciences du Génie Chimique - CNRS Nancy, France and Professor Fei Teng, Technology, Tsingua University, Beijing, China

20. Energy Storage by Peter Hall, University of Strathclyde, Glasglow, Scotland

21. Smart Energy Houses of the Future - self supporting in energy and zero emission by Robert Wing, Dept of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Imperial College London, London, UK

22. The two big questions: "The Prospects for Electricity and Transport Fuels to 2050" by Geoff Dutton, Engineering Department, Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Chilton, Didcot, UK and Matthew Page, Institute for Transport Studies, University of Leeds, Leeds, UK

Nov 2008 - Project completed - book titled "Future Energy - Improved, Sustainable and Clean Options for our Planet" published by Elsevier, 2008 [ISBN 978-0-08-054808-1].

* project initial announcement published in Chem. Int. 30(2), 2008

* book announcement published in Chem. Int. 31(1), 2009

Chairman: