This book presents innovative research and its applications in the development of transportation infrastructure, and discusses the latest trends, challenges and unsolved problems in the field of transport technology. The book also presents a range of solutions to problems faced by the rapidly growing economies of the developing world. Core challenges confronting policymakers in the field of transport technology include traffic congestion, air pollution, traffic fatalities and injuries, and petroleum dependence. At the same time, the increased use of hybrid and electric vehicles is changing consumer needs and behaviors. The solutions discussed in this book will encourage and inspire researchers, industry professionals and policymakers alike to put these methods into practice.

This book explores various facets of the transition to renewable energy in the Arctic region. It critically examines the adverse effects of fossil fuel extraction and use, environmental and social impacts of climate change, and the possibility of a low carbon energy system through innovation and technology. Drawing together a diverse range of contributors and considering a range of new energy sources, this volume also looks at the scale of the transition challenges in the Arctic energy production and use, the necessary flexibility to balance energy demand and supply, the need of a more integrated energy infrastructure, and the new energy business models, health and safety, and quality standards for the region. Finally, it examines the transit and influence between Arctic and non-Arctic countries, in terms of growth, partnerships and new dynamics of a transitioning process to a sustainable energy system. Focusing on specific case studies that represent the most relevant energy projects in the region, this book will be of great interest to students and scholars of energy policy and transitions, climate change, global business and sustainable development.

Gas hydrates are both a huge energy resource and an environmental challenge. They have a significant impact on society because of their applications to the future of energy, protection of the environment and fuel transportation. Gas Hydrates opens up this fascinating, multidisciplinary field to non-specialists. It provides a scientific study of gas hydrates that considers their potential as an energy source while assessing the possible risk to the environment. The authors also examine the feasibility of using these natural compounds for storing and transporting gases such as methane and carbon dioxide. Diagrams and photos are used throughout Gas Hydrates to help readers understand the scientific and technical content. Each section has been designed so it can be read independently by academics and professionals in the oil and gas industry, as well as by all those with an interest in how hydrates combine to be an energy resource, an industrial challenge and a geological hazard.

This book is written for scientists and practitioners interested in deepening their knowledge of the sustainable production of bioenergy from wood in tropical and sub-tropical countries. Utilising the value chain concept, this book outlines the necessary aspects for managing sustainable bioenergy production. A wide range of topics is covered including biomass localization, modelling and upscaling, production management in woodlands and plantations, and transport and logistics. Biomass quality and conversion pathways are examined in order to match the conversion technology with the available biomass. A section is dedicated to issues surrounding sustainability. The issues, covered in a life-cycle assessment of the bioenergy system, include socio-economic challenges, local effects on water, biodiversity, nutrient-sustainability and global impacts. Through this holistic approach and supporting examples from tropical and sub-tropical countries, the reader is guided in designing and implementing a value chain as the main management instrument for sustainable wood.

Greening Airports considers the "greening", i.e., more sustainable development, of the entire air transport system - airports, air traffic control, and airlines - that could be achieved by the development and implementation of advanced operations and technologies. A broad overview of the general concept is given at the start of Greening Airports, which then goes on to provide a system for monitoring and assessing the level of greening of both the air transport system and individual airports. These are followed by analysis and modelling of the potential effects of particular advanced operations and technologies on the greening of airports and their local airspace. These include: the development of a large airport into a multimodal transport node by connecting it to a high speed rail network; the use of operations supported by new and existing air traffic control technologies to increase landing capacity of existing runways; the use of liquid hydrogen as a commercial aviation fuel; and the improvement of airport ground accessibility by a light rail rapid transit system. Greening Airports is written for researchers, planners, operators and policy makers in air transport.

NATO Advanced Research Workshop "The Black Sea: Strategy for Addressing its Energy Resource Development and Hydrogen Energy Problems" was held in order to evaluate the Black Sea Region's environment, discuss the ways and means of protecting it, and to evaluate the methods of production of the energy carrier, hydrogen. Papers presented at the workshop, proposed various methods of hydrogen production from the hydrogen sulfide, from marine macro algae and other bacteria, storage and utilization of hydrogen, oil spills and pollutants in the Black Sea, degradation of the sea and the land around the region, and ways and means of protecting the environment. The workshop participants unanimously expressed the need to establish close cooperation amongst the Region's countries regarding the development of its energy resources, and at the same time protecting its environment. These recommendations have been put together in the Batumi Manifesto. This book entitled "Black Sea Energy Resource Development and Hydrogen Energy Problems" puts together the papers presented at the workshop, starting with the Batumi Manifesto. This valuable volume should be in the libraries of all the scientists, engineers, environmentalists, economists and decision makers involved in the development of the Black Sea Region and in the introduction of clean and abundant Hydrogen Energy.

Waste to Renewable Biohydrogen, Volume Two: Numerical Modelling and Sustainability Assessment provides an integrated approach on the experimental, modeling and sustainability aspects of waste-to-biohydrogen systems. The book focuses on processes for waste treatment to hydrogen production, delving into modeling and simulation methodologies for the design and optimization of different processes and systems. In addition, it looks at the application of computational fluid dynamics and artificial neural networks. Finally, it addresses the economic, environmental and sustainability implications of waste-to-biohydrogen systems, covering several techniques for cost-benefit analysis, techno-economic analysis, lifecycle assessment, sustainability ranking and supply chain design. This well-rounded reference supports decision-making for energy researchers and industry practitioners alike, but it is also ideal for graduate students, early career researchers and waste management professionals.

This book demonstrates that the much-needed global shift in energy production and use must happen at a territorial level in order to be truly successful and sustainable. This book enables regional implementation efforts by connecting broad EU environmental policies with plans for action at the territorial level, analysing efficient resource allocation and cost effectiveness to achieve national objectives. Each EU Member State is considered in depth, in order to identify the opportunities and challenges of this regional approach. The regional dimension of the authors' analysis refers to the territorial level NUTS 1 (Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics) that, starting from the administrative borders of the EU countries, divides the territory into 97 regions on the basis of major socio-economic characteristics. Because the model of the EU "green economy" is characterized typically by top-down interventions that focus exclusively on the resource productivity and investment business, its practical implementation can be de-railed. This book provides the pivotal missing piece- the detailed territorial comparative analysis necessary to obtain an optimal energy mix of renewable energy sources (RES), energy conservation and energy efficiency characteristics of each specific local context.

This book focuses on solar energy and its applications in Iraq and its neighboring countries. Iraq suffers from electricity shortages and faces many challenges to meet and overcome current and future increases in electrical demand. Although Iraq relies primarily on petroleum as an energy source, many scientists agree that the future of energy efficiency and safety will rely heavily on the implementation of green and renewable energies. This book is aimed at researchers, policymakers, and students and discusses how PV systems can be successfully implemented in order to reduce dependency on fossil fuel resources. Contains case studies and examples to enhance practical application of the technologies presented; Presents actual adopted Iraqi PV projects; Explains the use and application of photovoltaic cells.

This multi-authored book provides a comprehensive overview of the latest developments in porous CO2 capture materials, including ionic liquid derived carbonaceous adsorbents, porous carbons, metal-organic frameworks, porous aromatic frameworks, micro porous organic polymers. It also reviews the sorption techniques such as cyclic uptake and desorption reactions and membrane separations. In each category, the design and fabrication, the comprehensive characterization, the evaluation of CO2 sorption/separation and the sorption/degradation mechanism are highlighted. In addition, the advantages and remaining challenges as well as future perspectives for each porous material are covered.

This book is aimed at scientists and graduate students in such fields as separation, carbon, polymer, chemistry, material science and technology, who will use and appreciate this information source in their research. Other specialists may consult specific chapters to find the latest, authoritative reviews.

Dr. An-Hui Lu is a Professor at the State Key Laboratory of Fine Chemicals, School of Chemical Engineering, Faculty of Chemical, Environmental and Biological Science and Technology, Dalian University of Technology, China.

Dr. Sheng Dai is a Corporate Fellow and Group Leader in the Chemical Sciences Division at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) and a Professor of Chemistry at the University of Tennessee, USA."

This book provides timely, multidisciplinary cross-national comparison of the institutional and social processes through which renewable energy landscapes have emerged in Southern Europe. On the basis of case studies in these countries, it analyzes the way in which and the extent to which the development of renewable energies has affected landscape forms and whether or not it has contributed to a reformulation of landscape practices and values in these countries. Landscape is conceived broadly, as a material, social, political and historical process embedded into the local realm, going beyond aesthetic. The case studies analyze renewable energy landscapes in Southern Europe on different political and geographical scales and compare different types of renewable energy such as wind, hydro, solar and biomass power. The contributors are leading experts from Spain, France, Italy and Portugal. The book is intended for researchers, graduate students and professionals interested in geography, landscape and planning.

The third generation of solar cells includes those based on semiconductor quantum dots. This sophisticated technology applies nanotechnology and quantum mechanics theory to enhance the performance of ordinary solar cells. Although a practical application of quantum dot solar cells has yet to be achieved, a large number of theoretical calculations and experimental studies have confirmed the potential for meeting the requirement for ultra-high conversion efficiency. In this book, high-profile scientists have contributed tutorial chapters that outline the methods used in and the results of various quantum dot solar cell designs, including quantum dot intermediate band solar cells, hot electron quantum dot solar cells, quantum-dot sensitized solar cells, colloidal quantum dot solar cells, hybrid polymer-quantum dot solar cells, and MEG quantum dot solar cells. Both theoretical and experimental approaches are described. "Quantum Dot Solar Cells" helps to connect the fundamental laws of physics and the chemistry of materials with advances in device design and performance. The book can be recommended for a broad audience of chemists, electrical engineers, and materials scientists, and is suitable for use in courses on materials and device design for advanced and future optoelectronics.

This book identifies the challenges faced by large electricity consumers when they use several sources to procure their energy. The huge penetration of distributed energy resources and the intermittent nature of renewables can put the operations of the large electricity consumer at risk. The book discusses the different types of energy sources including the pool market, bilateral contracts, electrical vehicles, energy storage systems, and demand response programs in detail and presents solutions for robust and risk based scheduling. The author provides models for determining and considering uncertainties and optimal bidding strategies. The book is useful to engineers and students involved in the integration of various energy types as well as those working in state and federal governmental organizations who regulate different aspects of electricity market operation and planning. Presents solutions for robust and risk based scheduling; Discusses the operation and planning of energy storage systems; Presents the most-up-to-date technological approaches to energy integration.

The rise in population and the concurrently growing consumption rate necessitates the evolution of agriculture to adopt current computational technologies to increase production at a faster and smoother scale. While existing technologies may help in crop processing, there is a need for studies that seek to understand how modern approaches like artificial intelligence, fuzzy logic, and hybrid algorithms can aid the agricultural process while utilizing energy sources efficiently. The Handbook of Research on Smart Computing for Renewable Energy and Agro-Engineering is an essential publication that examines the benefits and barriers of implementing computational models to agricultural production and energy sources as well as how these models can produce more cost-effective and sustainable solutions. Featuring coverage on a wide range of topics such as bacterial foraging, swarm intelligence, and combinatorial optimization, this book is ideally designed for agricultural engineers, farmers, municipal union leaders, computer scientists, information technologists, sustainable developers, managers, environmentalists, industry professionals, academicians, researchers, and students.

Energy Storage for Multi-generation: Desalination, Power, Cooling and Heating Applications is designed to help readers implement and manage highly-efficient energy storage enabled industrial processes. The book provides an overview on energy storage technologies, recent trends around the world, and a discussion on the sustainability components of energy storage in different applications. Case studies for integrated power-water production schemes integrated with energy storage are also included, along with tactics to critically evaluate drivers that influence energy storage integration into power-water production schemes, including desalination, tri-generation and poly-generation concepts and configurations. This book will provide all engineers and researchers a better understanding of the application of renewable energy in desalination and the thermodynamic processes and laws involved.

This thesis investigates the use of blade-pitch control and real-time wind measurements to reduce the structural loads on the rotors and blades of wind turbines. The first part of the thesis studies the main similarities between the various classes of current blade-pitch control strategies, which have to date remained overlooked by mainstream literature. It also investigates the feasibility of an estimator design that extracts the turbine tower motion signal from the blade load measurements. In turn, the second part of the thesis proposes a novel model predictive control layer in the control architecture that enables an existing controller to incorporate the upcoming wind information and constraint-handling features. This thesis provides essential clarifications of and systematic design guidelines for these topics, which can benefit the design of wind turbines and, it is hoped, inspire the development of more innovative mechanical load-reduction solutions in the field of wind energy.

In the past decade, there has been a substantial increase of grid-feeding photovoltaic applications, thus raising the importance of solar electricity in the energy mix. This trend is expected to continue and may even increase. Apart from the high initial investment cost, the fluctuating nature of the solar resource raises particular insertion problems in electrical networks. Proper grid managing demands short- and long-time forecasting of solar power plant output.

"Weather modeling and forecasting of PV systems operation" is focused on this issue. Models for predicting the state of the sky, nowcasting solar irradiance and forecasting solar irradiation are studied and exemplified. Statistical as well as artificial intelligence methods are described. The efficiency of photovoltaic converters is assessed for any weather conditions.

"Weather modeling and forecasting of PV systems operation" is written for researchers, engineers, physicists and students interested in PV systems design and utilization.

Liberating Energy from Carbon analyzes energy options in a carbon-constrained world. Major strategies and pathways to decarbonizing the carbon-intensive economy are laid out with a special emphasis on the prospects of achieving low-risk atmospheric CO2 levels. The opportunities and challenges in developing and bringing to market novel low and zero-carbon technologies are highlighted from technical, economic and environmental viewpoints. This book takes a unique approach by treating carbon in a holistic manner-tracking its complete transformation chain from fossil fuel sources to the unique properties of the CO2 molecule, to carbon capture and storage and finally, to CO2 industrial utilization and its conversion to value-added products and fuels. This concise but comprehensive sourcebook guides readers through recent scientific and technological developments as well as commercial projects that aim for the decarbonization of the fossil fuel-based economy and CO2 utilization that will play an increasingly important role in the near- and mid-term future. This book is intended for researchers, engineers, and students working and studying in practically all areas of energy technology and alternative energy sources and fuels.

This diverse resource on renewable energy and sustainable technologies highlights the status, state of the art, challenges, advancements and options in areas such as energy recovery systems, turbine ventilators, green composites, biofuels and bio-resources for energy production, wind energy, integrated energy-efficient systems, thermal energy storage, natural ventilation & day-lighting systems, and low carbon technologies for building and environmental applications. It is designed to serve as a reference book for students, researchers, manufacturers and professionals working in these fields. The editors have gathered articles from world-leading experts that clearly illustrate key areas in renewable energy and sustainability. The distinct role of these technologies in future endeavors is stressed by taking into account the opportunities to contribute with new approaches, methods and directions for building and environmental applications. The in-depth discussion presented in this book will give readers a clear understanding of every important aspect of each technology's applications, optimum configuration, modifications, limitations and their possible improvements.

Solar Receivers for Thermal Power Generation: Fundamentals and Advanced Concepts looks at different Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) systems, their varying components, and the modeling and optimization of solar receivers. The book combines the detailed theory of receivers, all physical concepts in the process of converting solar radiation into electricity in CSP systems, and the main components of CSP systems, including solar concentrators, thermal receivers and power blocks. Main properties and working principles are addressed, along with the principles of solar resources and energy output of CSP systems and solar radiation. By covering different types and designs of solar receivers, heat transfer fluids, operating temperatures, and different techniques used in modeling and optimizing solar receivers, this book is targeted at academics engaged in sustainable energy engineering research and students specializing in power plant solarization.

This is the first book that analyses the future raw materials supply from the demand side of a society that chiefly relies on renewable energies, which is of great significance for us all. It addresses primary and secondary resources and substitution, not only from technical but also socioeconomic and ethical points of view. The "Energiewende" (Energy Transition) will change our consumption of natural resources significantly. When in future our energy requirements will be covered mostly by wind, solar power and biomass, we will need less coal, oil and natural gas. However, the consumption of minerals, especially metallic resources, will increase to build wind generators, solar panels or energy storage facilities. Besides e.g. copper, nickel or cobalt, rare earth elements and other high-tech elements will be increasingly used. With regard to primary metals, Germany is 100 % import dependent; only secondary material is produced within Germany. Though sufficient geological primary resources exist worldwide, their availability on the market is crucial. The future supply of the market is dependent on the development of prices, the transparency of the market and the question of social and ethical standards in the raw materials industry, as well as the social license to operate, which especially applies to mining. The book offers a valuable resource for everyone interested in the future raw material supply of our way of life, which will involve more and more renewable energies.

The book presents a state-of-the-art in environmental aerodynamics and the structural design of wind energy support structures, particularly from a modern computational perspective. Examples include real-life applications dealing with pollutant dispersion in the building environment, pedestrian-level winds, comfort levels, relevant legislation and remedial measures. Design methodologies for wind energy structures include reliability assessment and code frameworks.

This comprehensive book details the most recent advances in the microalgae biological sciences and engineering technologies for biomass and biofuel production in order to meet the ongoing need for new and affordable sources of food, chemicals and energy for future generations. The chapters explore new microalgae cultivation techniques, including solid (biofilm) systems, and heterotrophic production methods, while also critically investigating topics such as combining wastewater as a source of nutrients, the effect of CO2 on growth, and converting biomass to methane through anaerobic digestion. The book highlights innovative bioproduct optimization and molecular genetic techniques, applications of genomics and metabolomics, and the genetic engineering of microalgae strains targeting biocrude production. The latest developments in microalgae harvesting and dewatering technologies, which combine biomass production with electricity generation, are presented, along with detailed techno-economic modeling. This extensive volume was written by respected experts in their fields and is intended for a wide audience of researchers and engineers.

Power Generation from Solid Fuels introduces the different technologies to produce heat and power from solid fossil (hard coal, brown coal) and renewable (biomass, waste) fuels, such as combustion and gasification, steam power plants and combined cycles etc. The book discusses technologies with regard to their efficiency, emissions, operational behavior, residues and costs. Besides proven state of the art processes, the focus is on the potential of new technologies currently under development or demonstration.

The main motivation of the book is to explain the technical possibilities for reducing CO2 emissions from solid fuels. The strategies which are treated are: more efficient power and heat generation technologies, processes for the utilisation of renewable solid fuels, such as biomass and waste, and technologies for carbon capture and storage.

Power Generation from Solid Fuels provides, both to academia and industry, a concise treatment of industrial combustion of all types of solid, hopefully inspiring the next generation of engineers and scientists.

This book does not give a prediction of what the efficiency will be of the energy use of industrial processes in the future. However, it does give an exploration of limits to the efficiency of current processes and an indication of what might be achieved if new technologies can be developed. At the Department of Science, Technology and Society of Utrecht University research had been done to the opportunities for improvement of the energy efficiency in the short term since the 1980's. This had resulted in a comprehensive database on energy efficient measures. This database and a possible application are described in Chapter 3 of this book. The use of the database induced new research themes around efficiency improvement, e.g. concerning barriers for implementation of measures. It was around 1993 that I did a preliminary study to the potential for efficiency improvement in the long term. Historical analysis had shown us that the short term potential stayed constant over the years. It seemed to be replenished by the introduction of new technologies. This lead to the question whether there are limits to the efficiency, taking into account both thermodynamic considerations and ideas on the development and dissemination of new technologies.