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Open Forum on Energy and the Environment
Open Forum on Energy and the Environment
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ItemPerspectives on Energy, Resources, and Sustainability(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2011-04-28) Rousseau, Ronald W.National economies exhibit a strong linkage to the availability of affordable energy. Their growth usually is fed by aspirations for an improved standard of living, and it often relies on exploitation of natural resources. The linkage between global climate change and combustion of fossil fuels may be controversial, but the potential of environmental consequences sets an important boundary condition on future courses of action. It is therefore essential that we accelerate research leading to new methodologies for utilizing fossil fuels, identifying and developing new or alternative sources of energy, and improving the way natural resources are integrated into the goods and services essential for economic development. Displacement of non-renewable resources with those that can be renewed is desired, but the full impact of such a change is not clear. In this presentation, the magnitude of the demand for energy will be interpreted in terms of available resources and sustainability. Risks associated with various courses of action to meet that demand will be described.
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ItemEnergy Saving in the Built Environment(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2011-03-31) Augenbroe, GodfriedA brief overview of the energy saving opportunities in the built environment followed by a review of energy saving strategies for new "green building" design as well as retrofits of existing buildings. The talk will conclude with a critical review of current energy design methods, a reality check of the design of zero energy buildings, and a discussion of the much needed large scale energy retrofits.
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ItemStimulating Energy Efficiency: The Role of Local Governments and Industry(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2011-03-17) Brown, Marilyn A. ; Taube, BenThe speakers will discuss the role of local programs and industry in reducing the intensity of energy use and associated pollution in the U.S.
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ItemEnergy Perspective: Building Options(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2011-03-03) Shelton, Sam V. ; Thomas, Valerie M.Dr. Shelton will give a brief overview of U.S. energy utilization highlighting how building energy systems impact the U.S. energy demand. A review of current building energy technologies for lighting, heating, cooling, and water heating will then be presented, followed by potential new technologies to reduce building energy demand.
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ItemPathways to Inherently Efficient System-Wide Thermal Energy Utilization(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2011-02-03) Garimella, SrinivasEfforts at improving energy efficiency have typically involved component or device efficiency improvements, which limits energy use reductions to a few percent, for specific end uses. While such improvements are desirable, their impact on energy utilization at the national and global level is small. This talk will focus on revisiting the current global energy utilization paradigm, and suggest approaches to cascade primary energy utilization over several end uses across the temperature spectrum such that waste heat is minimized to the thermodynamically unavoidable levels. Such approaches yield substantial reductions in the carbon footprint of global energy utilization. In addition, techniques to not only harvest waste heat, but to upgrade it to produce power, cooling, and upgraded heat will be discussed. In the quest to "chase down the last Joule" from the source efficiently, a variety of technologies to harness, transform, store and transfer thermal energy will be presented. In particular, research being conducted at the Sustainable Thermal Systems Laboratory to exploit the advantages of microscale heat and mass transfer not only in small-scale devices, but also to extend them to Megawatt-scale applications will be presented. Thermally cascaded energy utilization systems for automotive, space-conditioning, electronics cooling, waste heat recovery, and portable cooling for the military, fire-fighting and other hazardous duty applications will be presented. The talk will demonstrate that improvements on the end-use side can have a significant impact on the supply, demand and intermediate stages of the energy spectrum.
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ItemIII-N Light Emitting Diodes for Energy Efficient Illumination(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2011-01-20) Dupuis, Russell D.
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ItemAssessment of tidal streams as an energy source for the United States(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2010-11-18) Haas, Kevin A.Tidal streams are high velocity sea currents created by periodic horizontal movement of the tides, often magnified by local topographical features such as headlands, inlets to inland lagoons, and straits. Tidal stream energy extraction is derived from the kinetic energy of the moving flow; analogous to the way a wind turbine operates in air, and as such differs from tidal barrages, which relies on providing a head of water for energy extraction. With the constantly increasing effort in promoting alternative energy, tidal streams have become a promising energy source due to their continuous, predictable and concentrated characteristics. However, the present lack of a full spatial-temporal assessment of tidal currents for the U.S. coastline down to the scale of individual devices is a barrier to the comprehensive development of tidal current energy technology. This talk will present the methodology for creating a national database of tidal stream energy potential, as well as a GIS tool usable by industry in order to accelerate the market for tidal energy conversion technology.
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ItemPersonal Reflections on Climate Change(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2010-11-04) Sholl, David S.By almost any measure, life in a developed country in 2010 is easy compared to all other times in human history. I will give a personal perspective whether the real and perceived challenges to the globe associated with energy supply and climate change create moral or ethical questions for first world citizens in general and working engineers and scientists in particular. Audience discussion and debate will be encouraged.
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ItemFrom Zero to One: Getting Technology from the Lab into the Real World(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2010-10-21) Fleming, Stephen ; Blake, Mike
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ItemBiofuels: Current Technology and New Developments(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2010-10-07) Sievers, CarstenThe development of production routes for fuels and chemicals from alternative resources (e.g. coal, gas, biomass) is one of the great scientific challenges of the 21st century. Biomass is a particularly interesting resource because it is CO2 neutral and the only renewable source of organic carbon. Different types of biomass and processes for their conversion will be introduced. Biodiesel and bioethanol will be discussed as case studies for processes that are currently operated on a commercial scale. Promising alternatives based on hydrolysis and fermentation, pyrolysis as well as gasification will be presented.
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