In response to the global increase in the use of biofuels as substitute transportation fuels, advanced chemical, biochemical and thermochemical biofuels production routes are fast being developed. Research and development in this field is aimed at improving the quality and environmental impact of biofuels production, as well as the overall efficiency and output of biofuels production plants. The range of biofuels has also increased to supplement bioethanol and biodiesel production, with market developments leading to the increased production and utilisation of such biofuels as biosyngas, biohydrogen and biobutanol, among others. Handbook of biofuels production provides a comprehensive and systematic reference on the range of biomass conversion processes and technology. Part one reviews the key issues in the biofuels production chain, including feedstocks, sustainability assessment and policy development. Part two reviews chemical and biochemical conversion and in turn Part three reviews thermal and thermo-chemical conversion, with both sections detailing the wide range of processes and technologies applicable to the production of first, second and third generation biofuels. Finally, Part four reviews developments in the integration of biofuels production, including biorefineries and by-product valorisation, as well as the utilisation of biofuels in diesel engines. With its distinguished international team of contributors, Handbook of biofuels production is a standard reference for biofuels production engineers, industrial chemists and biochemists, plant scientists, academics and researchers in this area.

In 2015, annual average atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) levels surpassed a level of 400 parts per million (ppm) for the first time in three million years. This has caused widespread concern among climate scientists, and not least among those that work on natural climate variability in prehistoric times, before humans. These people are known as "past climate" or palaeoclimate researchers, and author Eelco J. Rohling is one of them. The Climate Question offers a background to these concerns in straightforward terms, with examples, and is motivated by Rohling's personal experience in being intensely quizzed about whether modern change is not all just part of a natural cycle, whether nature will not simply resolve the issue for us, or whether it won't be just up to some novel engineering to settle things quickly. This book discusses in straightforward terms why climate changes, how it has changed naturally before the industrial revolution made humans important, and how it has changed since then. It compares the scale and rapidity of variations in pre-industrial times with those since the industrial revolution, infers the extent of humanity's impacts, and looks at what these may lead to in the future. Rohling brings together both data and process understanding of climate change. Finally, the book evaluates what Mother Nature could do to deal with the human impact by itself, and what our options are to lend her a hand.

Fossil fuels propelled industries and nations into the modern age and continue to powerfully influence economies and politics today. As "Energy Capitals" demonstrates, the discovery and exploitation of fossil fuels has proven to be a mixed blessing in many of the cities and regions where it has occurred.
With case studies from the United States, Canada, Mexico, Norway, Africa, and Australia, this volume views a range of older and more recent energy capitals, contrasts their evolutions, and explores why some capitals were able to influence global trends in energy production and distribution while others failed to control even their own destinies. Chapters show how local and national politics, social structures, technological advantages, education systems, capital, infrastructure, labor force, supply and demand, and other factors have affected the ability of a region to develop and control its own fossil fuel reserves. The contributors also view the environmental impact of energy industries and demonstrate how, in the depletion of reserves or a shift to new energy sources, regions have or have not been able to recover economically.
The cities of Tampico, Mexico, and Port Gentil, Gabon, have seen their oil deposits exploited by international companies with little or nothing to show in return and at a high cost environmentally. At the opposite extreme, Houston, Texas, has witnessed great economic gain from its oil, natural gas, and petrochemical industries. Its growth, however, has been tempered by the immense strain on infrastructure and the human transformation of the natural environment. In another scenario, Perth, Australia, Calgary, Alberta, and Stavanger, Norway have benefitted as the closest established cities with administrative and financial assets for energy production that was developed hundreds of miles away.
Whether coal, oil, or natural gas, the essays offer important lessons learned over time and future considerations for the best ways to capture the benefits of energy development while limiting the cost to local populations and environments.

World gasification capacity is expected to grow by more than 70% by 2015. While gasification is not a new process, the higher price in crude has lead operators and refineries to look at all possible coal-based technologies for energy conversion, and with the flow of heavy oil, tar sands and other unconventional feedstocks making their way to the refineries for processing, refinery managers and engineers alike must be made aware of how to process these uncommon energy sources." Gasification of Unconventional Feedstocks" addresses these unfamiliar feeds and provides a quick and up-to-date reference on the background, process technology and downstream applications required to help refineries maximize profits turning low-value feedstock to beneficial syngas and other fuel products. Clear and comprehensive, "Gasification of Unconventional Feedstocks "provides engineers and refinery managers with the tools needed to quickly adapt to the more unconventional feedstocks and still maximize their refineries potential.
Get up to speed on how to adjust your refinery's processingto unconventional feedstocksUnderstand the technology necessary to safely and effectively manage unfamiliar feedsTurn low-value product to profit quickly with must-have tips and rules of thumb"

Here is a state-of-the-art survey of artificial intelligence in modern exploration programs. Focussing on standard exploration procedures, the contributions examine the advantages and pitfalls of using these new techniques, and, in the process, provide new, more accurate and consistent methods for solving old problems. They show how expert systems can provide the integration of information that is essential in the petroleum industry when solving the complicated questions facing the modern petroleum geoscientist.

This book examines the lifeline of modern living - petroleum. This is what flows In our veins today. Every aspect of our life, from food to transport to housing, it is all petroleum based. Either its petroleum or its nothing. Our existence is draped in layers of petroleum. This book is a bible on the subject and covers every conceivable aspect of it, from its strategic importance to future prospects. Then the book goes on to delineate important strategic solutions to an unprecedented crisis that's coming our way.

Is the Arab world an indispensable energy source without which our civilisation will come to a halt? Is this the cause of political and military meddling in the Arab world's affairs, and the reason given by democratic western leaders to defend supporting autocratic and authoritarian Arab governments to stay in power? Is the world really this vulnerable? Assessment of mankind's dependence on fossil fuels, particularly the position of the Arab world, is performed by analysing the three types (oil, natural gas, and coal), which are in essence convertible. Fossil fuels are tackled from two angles: clarifying the terminology used by the media, politicians, scientists, and so-called experts, when discussing fossil fuels; evaluating the hard facts and separate them from fiction by analysing the numbers and scrutinise them impartially to come with a definitive quantitative answer. Finally, a further investigation examines fossil fuels in relation to alternative energy, and from political perspective.

Today's energy situation has created a dilemma for coal use in the United States. On one hand, the environmental challenges of using coal appear formidable, particularly with growing concern over the impact of carbon dioxide emissions on global climate change. On the other hand, the projected demand for electricity, coupled with high fuel costs, presents a near-term opportunity for the greater use of coal to ensure energy security for America. This solution to coal's "Catch-22" can be achieved through technological advancements that enable coal-based energy plants to produce much needed electricity and fuels for secure and stable economic growth. This book examines the development of the technological pathway of advanced power systems using bituminous coal.

Current discussions of U.S. and global energy supply refer to oil, natural gas and coal using several terms that may be unfamiliar to some. The terms used to describe different types of fossil fuels have technically precise definitions, and misunderstanding or misuse of these terms may lead to errors and confusion in estimating energy available or making comparisons among fuels, regions or nations. This book describes the characteristics of fossil fuels that make it necessary to use precise terminology, summarises the major terms and their meanings, and provides a brief summary of the United States' endowment of fossil fuels and the relationship between the U.S. fossil fuel energy endowment and those of other nations.

After covering the environment and energy beat for more than a decade, columnist Amanda Little decided that the only way to fully understand America's energy crisis was to travel into the heart of it. So she embarked on a daring, cross-country power trip to the most extreme and exciting frontiers of our energy landscape.

In "Power Trip," we accompany her to a deep-sea oil rig, the cornfields of Kansas, the catacombs of the Pentagon, the Talladega Superspeedway, and inside New York City's electrical grid. We visit laboratories creating the innovations that will carry us into a clean-energy future. Little also travels back through history to investigate how America developed its unrivaled appetite for fossil fuels. In vivid, fast-paced prose, she illustrates how the same American ingenuity that got us into this mess can get us out of it too.

This report covers Carbon Capture and Sequestration. Carbon capture and sequestration (or storage)-known as CCS-has attracted interest as a measure for mitigating global climate change because large amounts of carbon dioxide (CO2) emitted from fossil fuel use in the United States are potentially available to be captured and stored underground or prevented from reaching the atmosphere. Large, industrial sources of CO2, such as electricity-generating plants, are likely initial candidates for CCS because they are predominantly stationary, single-point sources. Electricity generation contributes over 40% of U.S. CO2 emissions from fossil fuels.

An unabridged edition with over 100 digitally restored illustrations - This book takes up the infinite detail of boiler rooms, and explains clearly and precisely all features. There are two sections. The first discusses boiler accessories: the feed water pumps, heaters, super-heaters, safety valves, fusible plugs, and such that are found in boiler room equipment. The second section deals with boiler practice: the firing, stoking, cleaning, setting, testing and general care of boilers in all their relations. A practical guide to the care and operation of super-heaters, feed-water heaters, stokers, and other boiler accessories, and the efficient handling of steam boilers.

This book is a facsimile reprint and may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages.

Although Africa has long been known to be rich in oil, extracting it hadn't seemed worth the effort and risk until recently. But with the price of Middle Eastern crude oil skyrocketing and advancing technology making reserves easier to tap, the region has become the scene of a competition between major powers that recalls the nineteenth-century scramble for colonization there. But what does this giddy new oil boom mean--for America, for the world, for Africans themselves?

John Ghazvinian traveled through twelve African countries--from Sudan to Congo to Angola--talking to warlords, industry executives, bandits, activists, priests, missionaries, oil-rig workers, scientists, and ordinary people whose lives have been transformed--not necessarily for the better--by the riches beneath their feet. The result is a high-octane narrative that reveals the challenges, obstacles, reasons for despair, and reasons for hope emerging from the world's newest energy hot spot.

Concerns over national security, environmental stresses, and high fuel prices have raised interest in reducing oil consumption. Through the Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) program, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) requires cars and light trucks to meet certain fuel economy standards. As requested, the author discusses (1) how CAFE standards are designed to reduce fuel consumption, (2) strengths and weaknesses of the CAFE program and NHTSA's capabilities, and (3) market-based policies that could complement or replace CAFE. This is an excerpted and edited version.

This scarce antiquarian book is included in our special Legacy Reprint Series. In the interest of creating a more extensive selection of rare historical book reprints, we have chosen to reproduce this title even though it may possibly have occasional imperfections such as missing and blurred pages, missing text, poor pictures, markings, dark backgrounds and other reproduction issues beyond our control. Because this work is culturally important, we have made it available as a part of our commitment to protecting, preserving and promoting the world's literature.

This book gathers four papers authored by Victor Bravo and Nicolas Di Sbroiavacca, Oil and Natural Gas Engineers, specialized in Energy Economics. The main axis of the book is the application of the exploitation techniques of Oil and Natural Gas in Argentina, by the so-called "conventional" methods, in comparison with the so-called "Fracking",(name massively used in the First World and particularly in the United States of America). Argentina has important Oil and Natural Gas resources in different regions of its wide geography. To develop these "non-conventional" techniques has generated endless controversies all over the world, mostly due to its estimated environmental impact and the need of significant requirement of large capitals for investment. Argentina is not out of this relevant controversy because in the mind of the maximum national authorities, fracking is one of the main factors that may contribute to generate monetary funds devoted to the payment of the immense foreign debt of this country. Other authors estimate that it is not possible to develop our country just on the basis of the massive exploitation and boundless export of natural resources. Consequently, fracking is undoubtedly a topic of National Energy Politics. In this scenario, a previous analysis of the National Energy Politics of the recent governments of Argentina, after the bloody military dictatorship of 1976-1983 and the return to democratic governments in December 1983. This analysis is done over the chapters "Analysis of the National Law N 27007 (known as the "Hydrocarbon Resources Law") and the Oil and Natural Gas politics", the "Oil and Natural Gas Politics of the period from 2003 to 2014" and "The Argentine Energy Politics during the 2014-2018 period". Later on, the "Fracking" case is fully developed with two complementary analyses. One of them is basically centered on the technical and prospective scenarios for "fracking": "Shale Oil and Shale Gas in Argentina: Situation and Perspectives". The other one, "A technical opinion about Fracking", contemplates the impacts resulting from the use of these techniques, especially those concerning the environment. Anyhow, each of the chapters are self-contained, thus permitting separate reading of any of them.