Libros UCLV { BETA }

As the world looks for alternative energy resources, renewable energy and energy effi ciency shine as the most appropriate alternative solutions. However, there are technical, political, social, economic, and environmental challenges. This volume investigates these challenges. Chapters 1 through 3 review policies which are likely to increase the adoption of renewable energy technologies. These three chapters provide a good introduction to the different policies for different types of energy sources as well as an approach on how to evaluate these policies for different cases. Chapters 4 through 9 present cases around the evaluation of renewable energy. Chapter 4 presents a wind energy case from Pakistan. This case presents a technical approach to assess the wind potential. Chapter 5 presents a technology assessment framework evaluating conversion of solid waste to energy. Chapters 6 and 7 provide two different perspectives on biofuels. They review national and local cases. Chapter 8 presents a case on residential solar electric systems. The chapter provides a framework on evaluating the adoption phenomenon. Finally, Chap. 9 provides a case on portfolio optimization in the electricity market and thus provides us with a fi nancial perspective. Chapters 10 and 11 review energy effi ciency technologies and programs as well as approaches to evaluate them. These two chapters provide a solid introduction to the energy effi ciency concept through a local case and a comprehensive review of the literature. Chapters 12 through 15 present different cases in the energy effi ciency area. Chapters 12 and 13 present two different approaches to evaluate clothes dryers which are major consumers of power in the residential market. One of the approaches relies on expert judgment quantifi cation while the other one on intelligence through patent analysis and modeling based on such intelligence. Chapter 14 presents a case on furnace fan motors, while Chap. 15 on insulation material for home construction. We hope that this volume will provide some guidance to those who are just planning to explore renewable energy and energy effi ciency as alternatives.

The goal of this handbook is to provide information necessary for engineers, energy professionals, and policy makers to plan a secure energy future. The time horizon of the handbook is limited to approximately 20 years because environmental conditions vary, new technologies emerge, and priorities of society continuously change. It is therefore not possible to make reliable projections beyond that period. Given this time horizon, the book deals only with technologies that are currently available or that are expected to be ready for implementation in the near future. Energy is a mainstay of an industrial society. As the population of the world increases and people strive for a higher standard of living, the amount of energy necessary to sustain our society is ever increasing. At the same time, the availability of nonrenewable sources, particularly liquid fuels, is rapidly shrinking. Therefore, there is general agreement that to avoid an energy crisis, the amount of energy needed to sustain society will have to be contained and, to the extent possible, renewable sources will have to be used. As a consequence, conservation and renewable energy (RE) technologies are going to increase in importance and reliable, up-to-date information about their availability, efficiency, and cost is necessary for planning a secure energy future.

Two problems currently confronting the world are the energy crisis and environmental pollution. Energy consumption in the world is increasing faster than its generation. It is estimated that the existing petroleum oil and natural gas reserves will be sufficient for only another few decades. The transportation sector and decentralized power generation completely depend upon petroleum products, particularly gasoline and diesel. The transportation sector is growing at a faster rate than reserves due to rapid technological development in the automotive industry and an increase in the use of personal vehicles in developed and developing countries. Thus the demand for petroleum accelerates the crude oil petroleum production peaks as well as its cost. Vehicle pollution has been a serious concern for the past few decades all over the world. Combustion products of petroleum fuels, such as carbon dioxide, are a major contributor to greenhouse gases. An increase in the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere will lead to global climate change. In the early 1960s, the United States initiated laws to control vehicle emissions and most other counties in the world have followed its lead. Moreover, the increasing operating cost of refineries to meet the latest emissions norms has put pressure on refining margins, and remains a problem converting refinery streams into products with acceptable fuel specifications. The combination of a short supply of fossil fuel reserves, environmental pollution, and volatility in crude oil prices has generated interest for using alternative fuels. In the long term, the role and interrelationship of alternative energy sources with other markets demand further attention and consideration. Renewable alternative fuels (i.e., biofuels) have low-net greenhouse gases; hence, many countries are promoting them as a part of their national plan to reduce greenhouse gases and to improve their energy security. Stringent emission standards have been enforced in many countries which has led to improvement in automotive technology and the use of alternative fuels like biofuels and gaseous fuels at an optimum blend. This book addresses the need for energy researchers, engineers (mechanical, chemical, and automobile), doctoral students, automotive power train researchers, vehicle manufacturers, oil industry researchers, and others interested in working on alternative fuel sources. Each chapter in the book contains the potential of the alternative fuels, production methods, properties, and vehicle tests, as well as their merits and demerits.

The 2nd International Congress on Energy Efficiency and Energy Related Materials (ENEFM2014) provided all scientists the opportunity to meet, present their work, discuss, and mutually interact in order to enhance and promote their research work. This volume, published by Springer, includes selected papers presented at this Congress, held in Oludeniz, Turkey, during October 16–19, 2014. On behalf of the organizing committee we would like to thank all the plenary and invited speakers for their valuable contribution. We would also like to thank TURA Tourism for their support in the organization of the Congress as well as the publishers for the quality of this edition

The 3rd International Congress on Energy Efficiency and Energy Related Materials (ENEFM2015) provided all scientists the opportunity to meet, present their work, discuss and mutually interact in order to enhance and promote their research work. This volume, published by Springer, includes selected papers presented at this Congress, held in Oludeniz, Turkey, October 19–23, 2015. On behalf of organizing committee we would like to thank all the participants, plenary and invited speakers for their valuable contribution. We would also like to thank AIGTUR for their support in the organization of the Congress as well as the publishers for the quality of this edition.

In physics, there are only a few fundamental laws that decide what is possible and what is not. Among them, the second law of thermodynamics is the most important law in physics which prohibits perpetual motion machines and distinguishes what is possible and impossible with regard to heat and energy. Around 1867, through a Gedankenexperiment (thought experiment), J.C. Maxwell demonstrated that the second law of thermodynamics can be violated by postulating an imaginary demon that can observe and operate microscopic states. The so-called Paradox of Maxwell’s Demon caused prolonged debates on information and thermodynamics. Nowadays, we are able to observe single-molecule dynamics and even manipulate them, thanks to development of modern technology. Thus, Maxwell’s demon comes closer to reality. Later, it was clarified that Maxwell’s demon does not contradict the second law of thermodynamics, implying that one can convert information to free energy in principle. Recent development of fluctuation theorems in non-equilibrium statistical mechanics moved us to the next stage for understanding well the relation between information and thermodynamics. The so-called information thermodynamics deals with the simplest Maxwell’s demon system, Szilard’s engine, which can extract work from an isothermal system by a feedback control. By separating Szilard’s engine into two subsystems, i.e., the demon that observes and performs feedback control and the system controlled by the demon and considering mutual information between two subsystems, our understanding of the relation between information and thermodynamics made great advances and finally the paradox was resolved.

This book explains the role of energy efficiency in economic development and analyzes trends in energy demand to explore the feasibility of regional economic growth under environmental constraints. Amidst growing environmental constraints, a comprehensive examination is needed of sustainable policies to stimulate regional economic development, while balancing energy use and addressing environmental problems. To accomplish this objective, the book closely examines energy demand trends in Japan by region and clarifies the factors behind changes in energy demand. In addition, this book focuses on the effects of energy efficiency on energy demand, demonstrates quantitatively the factors behind energy efficiency improvements, and explains the use of energy efficiency indicators. From these analyses, readers can investigate favorable regional economic and environmental policies that promote improvements in energy efficiency and contribute to the realization of a low-carbon society. To date, while various publications have presented studies that individually evaluated energy demand levels and energy efficiencies on a country-by-country basis, I am not aware of any publications that have explained the trends and determining factors for energy demand and energy efficiency from the perspective of regional economies. In particular, hardly any investigations have been conducted on favorable energy efficiency indicators suited to the study of energy and environmental policy. To overcome this issue, I present in this book the results of an extended analysis based on an indicator that I developed to determine the factors behind improvements in energy efficiency. In addition, the book highlights various factors behind changes to energy demand within regional economies. The purpose of this research is twofold. First, this book aims to understand the actual regional energy demand situation, in order to clarify the manner in which energy efficiency influences energy demand fluctuations. Second, this book develops an index to measure energy efficiency and analyze its determinants. Based on the above results, the present work identifies the desirable economic environments that will increase energy efficiency

Soon after the invention of the Scanning Probe Microscopies family (STM and AFM), an AFM was modified to be able to measure friction forces. Subsequent developments led to their use in studies of scratching, wear, and indentation and measurements of mechanical and electrical properties. Now they are routinely used in many fields including micro/nanotribology. Before becoming involved in Scanning Probe Microscopies (SPMs), the author had carried out projects in Nanophysics, in particular single-molecule experiments and weak interactions from quantum nature, which include molecular beams and nanoscopic/spectroscopic analyses. Collaboration of Nanotribology and Scanning Local Probes was timely expected and in 1996, I organized with the author the NATO Study Advanced Institute on Micro/Nanotribology in Sesimbra, Portugal, where important and interesting results were presented. The development of this field has attracted numerous physicists and SPMs in Nanotribology have made an immense impact on the field of Advanced Nanotechnology. As an example, studies with SPMs involve properties and size scales of critical relevance to energy-related components. As a pioneer of Nanotribology I must say that advanced local probe techniques and in particular emergent scanning probe microscopy methods addressing several nanoscale functionalities have been gradually implemented in energy storage and conversion applications. Friction is also an important limitation of energy efficiency performances in electro-mechanical components and some SPM techniques already are used for electric energy storage studies to study nano-friction.

The Energy Studies Institute (ESI) at the National University of Singapore started its China energy research in 2012. Its first conference on “China Energy Issues in the 12th Five-Year Plan and Beyond”, held in February 2012, examined the economic, environmental, and security aspects of China’s energy and carbon mitigation strategies. During this event, speakers and participants shared their opinions on China’s overall energy developments, and some of these discussions have been published in journals, such as in volume 73 of Energy Policy (Special Issue, 2014). ESI has established formal relationships with energy think-tanks in China—such as the Institute of Policy and Management, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and the College of Economics and Management in Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics—to look into China’s latest energy issues and their influences on the region. In 2013, the Institute launched a series called the “Singapore–China Energy Forum” to discuss the opportunities and challenges faced by China’s recent and future energy developments. The topics included energy efficiency and conservation, energy and carbon markets, energy security, climate change, and many others. This volume is the compilation of presentations on the subject of energy efficiency and conservation delivered at the first forum, held in November 2013. On behalf of the ESI research team, I would like to express our sincerest thanks to our Executive Director, Prof. S.K. Chou, and ESI’s board members for their unwavering support towards our China energy research and the Singapore–China Energy Forum series. We are also grateful to our administrative colleagues, including Mr. Peter Yap, Ms. Jan Lui, and Ms. S. Telagavathy, who assisted in the management of our events. Our special thanks also go to ESI’s Publications Committee, especially our Editor Ms. Eunice Low, who spent much time reading and copyediting earlier drafts of our manuscripts. Last but not least, we would like to thank all the speakers, authors, reviewers, participants, and research partners. With our continued efforts in China energy research, we hope to generate constant and fruitful discussions in this area.

This work deals with the very timely theme of enhancing energy efficiency in irrigation, exemplified by a pilot project in the state of Andhra Pradesh in India. Notwithstanding its declining contribution to the national gross domestic product, a natural corollary to the development process, the agricultural sector in India is still crucial to the all-round development of the nation. The sector currently employs nearly half of the population and has a critical role to play in the attainment of the national goals of increasing food security and reducing rural poverty. The temporal growth pattern of the Indian economy in the last decades bears out the direct and significant relationship to the state of agriculture today. In the last fifty years, Indian agriculture has made tremendous progress, initiated by what is commonly known as the Green Revolution. Food production rose from 82 million tons in 1960–1961 to an estimated 263.2 million tons in 2013– 2014. The Green Revolution was primarily characterized by employment of a package of practices—seeds, fertilizer, irrigation, and plant protection measures— to be supported by strong institutions. Irrigation occupied a pivotal role among these mainsprings of production growth, enabling the cultivation of two or more crops per year from the same piece of land. Due to huge investments in irrigation, the irrigated area in India now exceeds 63 million hectares, the largest of any country in the world.

Rising oil prices and uncertainty over the security of existing fossil fuel reserves, combined with concerns over global climate change, have created the need for new transportation fuels and bioproducts to substitute for fossil carbon-based materials. Ethanol is considered to be the next-generation transportation fuel with the most potential, and significant quantities of ethanol are currently being produced from corn and sugarcane via a fermentation process. Utilizing lignocellulosic biomass as a feedstock is seen as the next step toward significantly expanding ethanol production. The biological conversion of cellulosic biomass into bioethanol is based on the breakdown of biomass into aqueous sugars using chemical and biological means, including the use of hydrolytic enzymes. From that point, the fermentable sugars can be further processed into ethanol or other advanced biofuels. Therefore, pretreatment is required to increase the surface accessibility of carbohydrate polymers to hydrolytic enzymes. The goal of the pretreatment process is to break down the lignin structure and disrupt the crystalline structure of cellulose, so that the acids or enzymes can easily access and hydrolyze the cellulose. Pretreatment can be the most expensive process in biomass-to-fuels conversion but it has great potential for improvements in efficiency and lowering of costs through further research and development. Pretreatment is an important tool for biomass-to-biofuels conversion processes and is the subject of this e-book.

The objective of this book series is to focus on practical solutions in the implementation of sustainable energy and climate protection projects. Not moving forward with these efforts could have serious social and economic impacts. This book series will help to consolidate international findings on sustainable solutions. It includes books authored and edited by world-renowned scientists and engineers and by leading authorities in in economics and politics. It will provide a valuable reference work to help surmount our existing global challenges.

Energy and eco-efficiency of manufacturing processes are of great interest to manufacturers, consumers, government and others. This is due to the soaring energy costs and the environmental impacts caused by high-energy consumption levels. However, the energy consumption of manufacturing processes and the associated environmental impact has been historically overlooked. The unit process is the fundamental and dynamic element of any manufacturing system. Thus, it requires careful evaluation of its energy and eco-efficiency in order to derive further improvement measures. In this book, Dr. Li has developed a reliable methodology for characterizing energy and eco-efficiency of unit manufacturing processes. The Specific Energy Consumption, SEC, has been identified as the key indicator for the energy efficiency of unit processes. An empirical approach has been used to develop unit process energy consumption models based on SEC. Then these models have been validated on different machine tools and manufacturing processes to characterise the relationship between process parameters and energy consumptions. The tested cases cover a wide range of manufacturing processes including turning, milling, grinding, injection moulding and electrical discharge machining. All the derived SEC models agree with a universal form, where the Material Removal Rate (MRR) or throughput rate plays a decisive role in the model. The statistical results and additional validation runs have further proved the high accuracy of the derived models which is capable of predicting energy consumption with an accuracy of over 90 %. In order to characterise the eco-efficiency of manufacturing processes, Dr. Li also discussed the value and the associated environmental impacts of the processes. Besides the electricity energy consumption, other resource consumptions such as tool and coolant have been taken into account. The interrelationship among process parameters, process value and the associated environmental impact has been integrated in the characterization of eco-efficiency. The results have been further investigated to develop strategies for improving the energy and eco-efficiency of manufacturing processes.

This book was written as one of the “Sustainable Water Developments” book series. Realizing, however, thatwater, energy and food are the three pillars to sustain the growth of human population in the future, the book deals with all the above aspects with particular emphasis on water and energy. Despite the availability of several books on similar subject, this book is unique by including the results of research efforts mainly in the ASEAN and the Middle East Regions. With a large population of the ASEAN nations (around 300 million) and their rich natural resources, sustainable development of the region based on suitable utilization of the valuable resources will have a strong impact on the growth of the entire global economy. However, with limited land resources, inadequate energy supply and growing water stress, the region faces the challenge of providing enough water and energy to grow enough food for the burgeoning population. These issues and challenges in the water, energy and food sectors are interwoven in many complex ways and cannot be managed effectively without cross-sectorial integration. Luckily, the technologies are currently available to address all the above issues simultaneously, and the membrane separation technology is one of such key technologies. Therefore, it is no wonder that strong membrane research and development activities are now being undertaken in the ASEAN region. It is also needless to say that, as the primary supplier of the fossil fuel to the global market yet with scarce water resources, the production of drinking water and the rational management of energy by the nations in the Middle East is equally crucial to maintain the peace in the whole world. In this era of the global collaboration, it seems nowadays of primary importance to assemble the results of the individual research efforts in one place, thus promoting the networking among different research institutions in order to achieve the common goal of finding the solutions to the challenges we are facing. It was very fortunate therefore that the editors were successful to collect twenty eight papers; all related to water and energy, from the region as well the other parts of the world.

This textbook aims to briefly outline the main directions in which the geometrization of thermodynamics has been developed in the last decades. The textbook is accessible to the people trained in thermal sciences but not necessarily with solid formation in mathematics. For this, in the first part of the textbook a summary of the main mathematical concepts is made. In some sense, this makes the textbook self-consistent. The rest of the textbook consists of a collection of results previously obtained in this young branch of thermodynamics. The content is organized as follows.

The focus and context of the book is on energy efficiency in large-scale distributed systems. These systems consist of thousands of heterogeneous elements that communicate via heterogeneous networks and provide different memory, storage, and processing capabilities. Examples for very large-scale distributed systems are computational and data grids, data centers, clouds, core and sensor networks, and so on. The target audiences of the book are manifold: from IT and environmental researchers to operators of large-scale systems, up to small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and startups willing to understand the global picture and the state of the art in the field. It helps in building strategies and understanding upcoming developments in the rapid field of energy efficiency to speedup transfer of technologies to industries. This book is one major outcome of the European Cooperation in Science and Technology (COST) Action IC0804. The COST Action instrument is a 4-year funding scheme in European research framework aimed at helping the development of networks of researchers.1 The funding goes mainly to four main objectives: (i) to organize meetings on a specific field with experts of the members’ countries and to foster closer cooperations; (ii) to help exchanges of researchers through short-term scientific missions (STSM), for a duration of 1 week to several weeks; (iii) to develop the young researchers’ skills in the field through the organization of annual training schools; and (iv) to shape and rethink the research agenda on the field. One important information at this stage is that COST Actions do not fund research directly: individual projects still rely on European and national funding agencies. The COST Action IC08042 finds its root in 2008. It was started in May 2009 and finished in May 2013. The COST Action IC0804 investigated energy efficiency in large-scale distributed systems. These systems include, among others, wired and wireless networks, high performance computing, cloud and desktop computing, and smart grids. The scientific outcome of the Action has been numerous and will be detailed in the rest of this book. At the end of the Action duration, 23 European countries, and 7 non-European institutions, were members of the Action. About 150 researchers participated on the various Action activities, coming from academy and industry (including IBM, Microsoft, Intel, Yahoo, Ericsson, and EDF and also various SMEs and startups originated during the 4 years). Twenty-four STSM have been organized, and altogether more than 76 joint publications have been released