This scientifically sound, yet easily readable book provides the fundamentals necessary to understand today's energy and climate problems and provides possible answers based on current technology such as solar, water and geothermal power. Moreover, it introduces the reader to new concepts that are already or may soon be realized, such as nuclear fusion or a hydrogen-based economy.
It is aimed at a wide readership ranging from educated laypeople and students to practitioners in engineering and environmental science.
Acknowledgements
Prologue
PART I: QUESTIONS Introduction Ancient Days and Modern Times Ice Ages-Past and Future Global Warming versus Returning Glaciers Earth's Fossil Fuels Fuel for Nuclear Fission
PART II: ANSWERS Introduction Solar Energy Wind, Waves, and Tides Water, Dams, and Hydropower Geothermal and Ocean Thermal Gradient Energy Efficiency, Conservation, and Hybrid Cars Energy Storage: Macro to Micro Green Fuel: Biodiesel, Alcohol, and Biomass
PART III: DREAMS Introduction Nuclear Fusion: Engine of the Sun Breeding Nuclear Fuel Hydrogen, Alcohol, Coal, and Fuel Cells Magnetohydrodynamics and Power Plants Thermionics and the Single Fuel Home Water Splitting and Artificial Photosynthesis Planetary Engineering and Terraforming Space Solar Power: Energy and the Final Frontier
PART IV: NIGHTMARES ORBITuary? Disasters That Could Occur
Chapter Notes
Franklin Hadley Cocks is Chairman of the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science at the Pratt School of Engineering of Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, USA. Professor Cocks has taught courses on energy and the environment for decades and has published over 150 technical papers and more than 20 US patents. He earned all his degrees from MIT and was a Fulbright Fellow at Imperial College, London, and a Visiting Scholar at Harvard. At Tyco Laboratories he developed the silicon ribbon crystal growth method now used to produce silicon solar cells on an industrial scale. His foamed-metal payload was flown on the Columbia shuttle in 1991. He was a consultant to Los Alamos National Laboratory for many years and more recently for the Department of Energy.
[An] original approach ... .Recommended to graduate students and to science educators at all levels, who have the pressing responsibility to increase awareness of energy and climate problems in younger generations. (Angewandte Chemie International Edition, 2009)