Sustainable Energy, second edition: Choosing Among Options

by Jefferson W. Tester, Elisabeth M. Drake, Michael J. Driscoll, Michael W. Golay, William A. Peters

Overview

The second edition of a widely used textbook that explores energy resource options and technologies with a view toward achieving sustainability on local, national, and global scales.

Human survival depends on a continuing supply of energy, but the need for ever-increasing amounts of it poses a dilemma: How can we find energy sources that are sustainable and ways to convert and utilize energy that are more efficient? This widely used textbook is designed for advanced undergraduate and graduate students as well as others who have an interest in exploring energy resource options and technologies with a view toward achieving sustainability on local, national, and global scales. It clearly presents the tradeoffs and uncertainties inherent in evaluating and choosing sound energy portfolios and provides a framework for assessing policy solutions.

The second edition examines the broader aspects of energy use, including resource estimation, environmental effects, and economic evaluations; reviews the main energy sources of today and tomorrow, from fossil fuels and nuclear power to biomass, hydropower, and solar energy; treats energy carriers and energy storage, transmission, and distribution; addresses end-use patterns in the transportation, industrial, and building sectors; and considers synergistic complex systems. This new edition also offers updated statistical data and references; a new chapter on the complex interactions among energy, water, and land use; expanded coverage of renewable energy; and new color illustrations. Sustainable Energy addresses the challenges of making responsible energy choices for a more sustainable future.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780262304634
Publisher:	MIT Press
Publication date:	10/05/2012
Series:	The MIT Press
Sold by:	Penguin Random House Publisher Services
Format:	eBook
Pages:	1056
File size:	29 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Jefferson W. Tester is Croll Professor of Sustainable Energy Systems at Cornell University.

Elisabeth M. Drake is Emeritus Researcher at the MIT Energy Initiative.

Michael J. Driscoll is Professor Emeritus of Nuclear Science and Engineering at MIT.

Michael W. Golay is Professor of Nuclear Science and Engineering at MIT.

William A. Peters is Executive Director of the Institute for Soldier Nanotechnologies at MIT.

Table of Contents

	Preface	xvii
	Acknowledgments	xxi
Chapter 1	Sustainable Energy-The Engine of Sustainable Development	1
1.1	Sustainable Energy: The Engine of Sustainable Development	2
1.2	Defining Energy-Scientific and Engineering Foundations	9
1.3	Aspects of Energy Production and Consumption	17
1.4	National and Global Patterns of Energy Supply and Utilization	24
1.5	Environmental Effects of Energy-Gaining Understanding	32
1.6	Confronting the Energy-Prosperity-Environmental Dilemma	41
1.7	Mathematical Representations of Sustainability	45
1.8	The Rest of This Book	47
	References	48
Chapter 2	Estimation and Evaluation of Energy Resources	51
2.1	Units of Measurement: Energy and Power	52
2.2	Comparison of Different Forms of Energy	54
2.3	The Energy Lifecycle	56
2.4	Estimation and Valuation of Fossil Mineral Fuels, Especially Petroleum	64
2.4.1	Asking the right questions and avoiding the unanswerable ones	64
2.4.2	Perspectives from mineral geology	65
2.4.3	Two interpretations of hydrocarbon fuel economics	66
2.4.4	Categories of reserves	73
2.4.5	Forecasting mineral fuel prices and supplies	75
2.4.6	Geopolitical factors and energy supply "crises"	79
2.5	Lessons for Sustainable Development	82
2.6	Summary and Conclusions	83
	References	83
Chapter 3	Technical Performance: Allowability, Efficiency, Production Rates	87
3.1	Relation to Sustainability	88
3.2	An Introduction to Methods of Thermodynamic Analysis	90
3.2.1	Allowability, efficiency, and the Second Law	90
3.2.2	More about entropy	92
3.2.3	Analysis of ideal (Carnot) heat engines	98
3.2.4	Analysis of real world (irreversible) heat engines	100
3.3	The Importance of Rate Processes in Energy Conversion	115
3.4	Chemical Rate Processes	116
3.5	The Physical Transport of Heat	120
3.5.1	Foundations for quantitative analysis	120
3.5.2	Thermal conduction	122
3.5.3	Convective heat transfer	123
3.5.4	Radiative heat transmission	124
3.5.5	Heat transfer by tandem mechanisms	128
3.6	Use and Abuse of Time Scales	129
3.7	Energy Resources and Energy Conversion-Fertile Common Ground	131
	References	131
	Problems	134
Chapter 4	Local, Regional, and Global Environmental Effects of Energy	137
4.1	How Energy Systems Interact with the Environment	138
4.1.1	Known and potential environmental threats	138
4.1.2	Origin of harmful agents	140
4.1.3	Length and time scales for environmental impacts	143
4.2	Adverse Environmental Effects Over Local and Regional Length Scales	147
4.2.1	Ambient air pollution	147
4.2.2	Adulteration of soil, water, and indoor air	156
4.2.3	Transport and transformation of air, ground, and water contamination	157
4.3	Global Climate Change: Environmental Consequences over Planetary-Length Scales	158
4.3.1	Introduction	158
4.3.2	Basic science of the greenhouse effect	160
4.3.3	Energy and the greenhouse effect	167
4.3.4	Greenhouse consequences: Consensus, unknowns, misconceptions	172
4.3.5	Technological and policy response strategies: Evolutionary and revolutionary	178
4.4	Attribution of Environmental Damage to Energy Utilization	184
4.4.1	Diagnosing receptor jeopardy and injury	185
4.4.2	Source identification	190
4.4.3	Risk and uncertainty	191
4.5	Methods of Environmental Protection	191
4.5.1	Energy and the environment as an ensemble of coupled complex systems	191
4.5.2	Earth-system ecology as a working paradigm	192
4.5.3	Public policy instruments	195
4.5.4	Technological remedies	196
4.6	Environmental Benefits of Energy	196
4.6.1	Pollution prevention and environmental restoration	196
4.6.2	Social and economic foundations for environmental stewardship	197
4.7	Implications for Sustainable Energy	197
4.7.1	Environmental footprints as sustainability metrics	197
4.7.2	The unusual challenge of global climate change	198
	Problems	199
Appendix	Lessons from SO[subscript 2] Emissions Trading	200
	References	203
Chapter 5	Project Economic Evaluation	207
5.1	Introduction	208
5.2	Time Value of Money Mechanics	211
5.2.1	Basic aspects	211
5.2.2	Application to a typical cash flow scenario	213
5.2.3	Derivation of relations	215
5.2.4	Pitfalls, errors, and ambiguities	220
5.3	Current versus Constant-Dollar Comparisons	222
5.4	Simple Payback	225
5.5	Economy of Scale and Learning Curve	225
5.6	Allowing for Uncertainty	229
5.6.1	Overview	229
5.6.2	Analytic uncertainty propagation	229
5.6.3	The Monte Carlo method	230
5.6.4	Decision tree method	232
5.7	Accounting for Externalities	232
5.8	Energy Accounting	239
5.9	Modeling Beyond the Project Level	241
5.10	Chapter Summary	243
	Appendix A	245
	Appendix B	247
	References	251
	Problems	254
Chapter 6	Energy Systems and Sustainability Metrics	259
6.1	Introduction and Historical Notes	260
6.2	Energy from a Systems Perspective	263
6.3	Systems Analysis Approaches	271
6.3.1	Lifecycle analysis	273
6.3.2	Simulation models	275
6.3.3	Risk-based models	276
6.4	Measures of Sustainability	279
6.4.1	General indicators of sustainability	280
6.4.2	Categories of indicators	282
6.5	Drivers of Societal Change	284
6.6	Some General Principles of Sustainable Development	287
	References	289
	Web Sites of Interest	292
	Problems	292
Chapter 7	Fossil Fuels and Fossil Energy	295
7.1	Introduction	296
7.1.1	Definition and types of fossil fuels	296
7.1.2	Historical and current contributions of fossil fuels to human progress	300
7.1.3	Sustainability: Challenges and opportunities	302
7.2	The Fossil Fuel Resource Base	302
7.2.1	How long will fossil fuels last?	302
7.2.2	"Unconventional" naturally occurring fossil fuels	303
7.2.3	Fossil resources and sustainability	305
7.3	Harvesting Energy and Energy Products from Fossil Fuels	306
7.3.1	Exploration, discovery, and extraction of fuels	306
7.3.2	Fuel storage and transportation	306
7.3.3	Fuel conversion	307
7.3.4	Fuel combustion	317
7.3.5	Direct generation of electricity: Fuel cells	324
7.3.6	Manufacture of chemicals and other products	329
7.4	Environmental Impacts	329
7.4.1	Pollutant sources and remedies: The fuel itself	329
7.4.2	Pollutant sources and remedies: Combustion pathologies	332
7.4.3	Pollutant sources and remedies: Carbon management	333
7.5	Geopolitical and Sociological Factors	337
7.5.1	Globalization of fossil energy sources	337
7.5.2	Equitable access, Revenue scaffolds, "American Graffiti"	338
7.6	Economics of Fossil Energy	341
7.7	Some Principles for Evaluating Fossil and Other Energy Technology Options	346
7.8	Emerging Technologies	353
7.9	Closure: Why Are Fossil Fuels Important to Sustainable Energy?	353
	References	355
	Problems	359
Chapter 8	Nuclear Power	361
8.1	Nuclear History	362
8.2	Physics	364
8.3	Nuclear Reactors	364
8.4	Burning and Breeding	368
8.5	Nuclear Power Economics	369
8.6	The Three Mile Island 2 Nuclear Power Plant Accident	370
8.7	Reactor Safety	372
8.8	Light-Water Reactors (LWR)	374
8.9	Pressurized-Water Reactor (PWR) Technologies	374
8.10	Boiling-Water Reactor (BWR) Technology	377
8.11	RBMK Reactors	377
8.12	Heavy-Water Cooled Technologies	380
8.13	Gas-Cooled Reactor Technologies	380
8.14	Liquid-Metal Reactor Technologies	384
8.15	Actinide Burning	385
8.16	Advanced Reactors	387
8.17	Nuclear Power Fuel Resources	387
8.18	Fuel Cycle	389
8.18.1	Uranium mining	390
8.18.2	Uranium milling	390
8.18.3	Conversion	391
8.18.4	Enrichment	391
8.18.5	Fuel fabrication	392
8.18.6	Spent fuel	392
8.18.7	Reprocessing	393
8.18.8	High Level Wastes (HLW) disposal	394
8.19	Fusion Energy	397
8.19.1	Introduction	397
8.19.2	Why is fusion more difficult than fission?	398
8.19.3	Magnetic fusion energy	400
8.19.4	Inertial fusion energy	401
8.19.5	Prospects for the future	402
8.20	Future Prospects for Nuclear Power	404
	References	405
	Additional Resources	406
Chapter 9	Renewable Energy in Context	407
9.1	Introduction and Historical Notes	408
9.2	Resource Assessment	410
9.3	Environmental Impacts	412
9.4	Technology Development and Deployment	413
9.5	The Importance of Storage	414
9.6	Connecting Renewables to Hydrogen	414
9.7	The Future for Renewable Energy	415
9.8	Additional Resources	416
	References	416
Chapter 10	Biomass Energy	419
10.1	Characterizing the Biomass Resource	420
10.2	Biomass Relevance to Energy Production	424
10.2.1	Utilization options	424
10.2.2	Advantages and disadvantages	424
10.2.3	More on resources	427
10.3	Chemical and Physical Properties Relevant to Energy Production	429
10.4	Biomass Production: Useful Scaling Parameters	430
10.5	Thermal Conversion of Biomass	432
10.5.1	Biomass to electricity	432
10.5.2	Biomass to fuels	434
10.6	Bioconversion	437
10.6.1	Introduction	437
10.6.2	Biogas	437
10.6.3	Fermentation ethanol from corn and cellulosic biomass	440
10.7	Environmental Issues	440
10.8	Economics	443
10.9	Enabling Research and Development	444
10.10	Disruptive Technology	444
10.11	Summary	446
	References	446
	Web Sites of Interest	449
	Problems	449
Chapter 11	Geothermal Energy	453
11.1	Characterization of Geothermal Resource Types	454
11.1.1	Definition in general	454
11.1.2	Natural hydrothermal systems	457
11.1.3	Geopressured systems	459
11.1.4	Hot dry rock	459
11.1.5	Magma	461
11.1.6	Ultra low-grade systems	461
11.1.7	Markets for geothermal energy	462
11.2	Geothermal Resource Size and Distribution	464
11.2.1	Overall framework and terminology	464
11.2.2	Quality issues	465
11.2.3	Resource base and reserve estimates	466
11.3	Practical Operation and Equipment for Recovering Energy	468
11.3.1	Drilling and field development	468
11.3.2	Reservoir fluid production	469
11.3.3	Non-electric, direct-heat utilization	473
11.3.4	Electric power generation	477
11.3.5	Equipment	481
11.3.6	Power cycle performance	485
11.4	Sustainability Attributes	487
11.4.1	Reservoir lifetime issues	487
11.4.2	Environmental impacts	488
11.4.3	Dispatchable heat and power delivery	490
11.4.4	Suitability for developing countries	490
11.4.5	Potential for CO[subscript 2] reduction and pollution prevention	490
11.5	Status of Geothermal Technology Today	491
11.5.1	Hydrothermal	491
11.5.2	Advanced systems	495
11.6	Competing in Today's Energy Markets	505
11.7	Research and Development Advances Needed	508
11.8	Potential for the Long Term	510
	References	510
	Web Sites of Interest	517
	Problems	517
Chapter 12	Hydropower	519
12.1	Overview of Hydropower	520
12.2	Hydropower Resource Assessment	522
12.3	Basic Energy Conversion Principles	525
12.4	Conversion Equipment and Civil Engineering What People are Saying About This From the Publisher "At last, sustainable energy can be taught from a single textbook — one that is balanced, worldly, comprehensive, and challenging. Watch out, teachers! Science and engineering students are going to demand courses that use this book."—Robert Socolow, Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Princeton University From the B&N Reads Blog Page 1 of Related Subjects Science & Technology Engineering Energy & Power Resources Ecology & Environmental Sciences Environmental Sciences Electricity & Technology Energy Technology Environmental Science - General & Miscellaneous Natural Resources - General & Miscellaneous Power Resources Science & Technology Engineering Energy & Power Resources Ecology & Environmental Sciences Environmental Sciences Electricity & Technology Energy Technology Environmental Science - General & Miscellaneous Natural Resources - General & Miscellaneous Power Resources Editorial Reviews "This book with its references and links is an excellent source text for anyone considering a course on energy options for the future and for anyone else interested in understanding the science and argument which underlie the debate on energy options for a sustainable future." R. John Sandeman International Journal of Environmental Studies From the Publisher Customer Reviews